The Key
by princat
Summary: Two ex soldiers, a fugitive doctor and psychic, a mercenary, a mechanic, a flyboy, and a high class whore...and these are the good guys. Plotline loosely based on the movie Sneakers. Post BDM, and in my 'verse, Wash is alive. Canon plus Rayne development.
1. The Prologues

This was written for a Livejournal community last year. Plotline loosely based on the movies _Sneakers._ All canon couples plus Rayne development. Post BDM, and my verse, Wash lives. R&R appreciated.

Rating: PG for language

Disclaimer: 1) a renunciation of any claim to or connection with; 2) disavowal; 3) a statement made to save one's own ass.

Logline (adopted from the movie _Sneakers_): Two ex-soldiers, a fugitive doctor and psychic, a mercenary, a mechanic, a fly-boy, and a high class whore...and these are the good guys.

Series: The Key

Ch. The Prologues

River's Prologue

Nine-year-old River Tam sat at a table in the kitchen, perched over what appeared to be a small board with numerous configurations of metal attached to it, oblivious to the hustle and bustle around her. Her parent's house servants were engaged in last minute preparations for yet another dinner party. River couldn't have cared less. She had successfully managed to get out of an appearance at this one, a parental decision spurred on by her behavior the last time she been required to make an appearance. The Tam children were still considered too young to attend a formal engagement through its entirety- but they were 'allowed' to make a short appearance at the beginning of the evening to enlighten everyone as to their latest progress, i.e., a recital of sorts. Simon would invariably be asked to recite the latest in medical progress, while River would be asked to dance a short, quiet, piece. Nothing that required speaking, as the Tam parents had learned very early on that River spoke far beyond her years, disconcerting their guests.

At the last dinner party, an entire month ago as the Tams had required some recovery time, River had been asked by a guest, jokingly of course, what her thoughts were on the upcoming election. Big mistake. By the time she had gotten partway through a thoughtful analysis of campaign sponsorship and why it didn't matter who won as both parties had been bought off by the same financial and legal institutions, her parents had lost half their party guests and were furious. Which River couldn't understand, as she had been asked the question in the first place, she had not spoken out first as her parents had instructed. She had been sent to her room and had cried until Simon had come up to check on her, telling her that she wasn't going to be asked to put in any more appearances. That thought had caused an immediate cessation of crying- no more dog and pony shows? Well, how was that bad?

So tonight, instead of pacing in an upstairs foyer until she was called, she simply ignored everyone and everything as she worked on her latest project. She often came to the kitchen to work when she wanted peace and quiet; despite the hustle around her tonight, she knew that here she would not be bothered by her parents passing by, pausing only to tell her that whatever she was doing was inappropiate for little girls to be doing. The kitchen staff never told her no; she kept out of their way, and they thought she was cute and made sure she always had enough milk and cookies to keep her going through whatever 'project' she was currently working on. They thought her harmless and a bit more 'normal' than whatever it was her parents expected her to be. This is what kids did- explored the world around them. So, when young River showed up that afternoon with her pile of metallic odds and ends, no one thought anything of it. She spent the afternoon quietly sticking various pieces into a hole filled board, then just before the appetizers were about to be served, she slipped out unnoticed into the back hallway.

She quietly made her way up the back servant staircase, around the corner, and paused at the top. Simon was down the hall, where he would be pacing in his room, nervously waiting to be called and grilled for the amusement of the guests, and the defense of his father's pride. It was nerve wracking to the young man. True, he was smarter than most his age, but being made to grandstand as yet another net accomplishment by his father was not good for a teenaged boy's nerves. River felt that since she had been let off the hook for these performances, she needed to help Simon get out of them as well. She knew he would never willingly defy their father, so she decided it was incumbent upon her to assist her brother in his time of need.

She crouched down in the shadows near the turn at the top of stairs and listened. She noted the noise level drifting up from downstairs seemed to be about equal to all guests being present and accounted. She quietly reached over to the access panel in the wall next to her and pried the cover off with a butter knife she had swiped from the kitchen. Leaning it up against the wall, she pulled her little afternoon project out of a large pocket in the front of her dress. She raised the small contraption towards the circuit boards inside the wall.

The kitchen help had thought River was making a collage on a little board, a collage made up of bits of metal, wires, and what looked like miniature ceramic beads. One of the cooks had even offered her a bigger piece of cardboard for her 'art', she had smiled and politely declined. What River had actually been making, however, was a sort of jimmy-rigged multiple-frequency transmitter, a kind of remote control. Or rather, THE remote control. For everything. In the house. On the house. On the estate grounds. EVERYTHING.

Not two minutes later, a servant came scurrying up the stairs to fetch Simon. He appeared slowly, obviously reluctant to perform as the circus poodle his parents expected. As he stepped into the hallway, the lights suddenly dimmed down low, then rose up again. The conversation level downstairs rose and fell as well. Simon took another step forward, the lights went out. Conversation levels rose again. River could hear her father's voice rising as he tried to re-assure the guests.

Events started to speed up. The floodlights started flickering. The house alarms went off, although it was weird the way the pitch seemed to randomly rise and fall like some weird techno-band creation. The emergency floor runner lights started blinking randomly as if celebrating Christmas in July.

By now the guests were definitely leaving, in a rush. River's and Simon's parents were in an uproar, their mother trying to calm people and convince them to stay. Their father was alternately yelling at a running, hapless staff, and then turning to yell at his guests to not leave; which just served to convince them to leave, as no one wanted to be near Gabriel Tam when he was upset. Just as the majority of the guests were halfway down the walk to their limos, the sprinklers went off. Chaos moved in and took up residence. Women screamed as priceless gowns and hairdos were instantly soaked, their husbands yelling back threats of dry cleaning bills at the Tams. River watched the outdoors high jinks through a small window at the top of the stair landing.

"You'll be grounded for life for this one," Simon said, close behind her.

River didn't jump; she had known Simon was behind her without looking. "I was trying to help you. The least you can do is enjoy the show_ they're_ putting on for you this time," she returned petulantly. Simon sighed.

"Yes, I suppose we should while we can," he sighed. He wrapped his arm around his little sister, already coming to a decision.

"You're so fatalistic, Simon. Just for once, _try_ to have a little fun at someone else's expense- tonight, for a few minutes, you are not their puppet." She turned to face him. "And, you are not taking the blame for this, so don't even try," she said firmly, knowing that Simon was already planning on taking the fall for her.

"No, mei mei, you can't, they are going to be over the top mad about this one. You can't, let me…" Simon's voice trailed off as he heard their father stomping back into the downstairs hall, hollering at the top of his lungs.

"You wait until I get a hold of that xi xie gui salesman from SelectTech that convinced me to re-route the entire system through their mainframe- I'll have him for breakfast!!" Gabriel continued on, stomping on through into the living room to rant and pace in front of their mother, in despair and slogging back leftover drinks on the couch. He continued to rant for several minutes, then voices faded as they seemed to retire back to their private wing. One by one, as servants scurried around, things began shutting off. The sprinklers, the blinking runway lights, the main lights holding steady once again. Simon sighed and looked at River.

"Well, I had better…" he started.

"No! Silly, father already has a 'fall'guy!" River whispered loudly. "Just go with it!"

"A 'fall' guy?" questioned Simon.

"You know, a stooge, a patsy, a scapegoat, a cement-shoed bottom sucker," River rattled the terms off her tongue with ease.

Simon sighed again. Seemed he was doing a lot of that tonight. "Okay," he agreed. "but I seriously think you should cut back on the amount of television you watch."

River stuck her tongue out at him, hugged him quickly, and ran off to bed. Simon watched her go, once again grateful that he was on her good side. He shuddered at the thought of ever being on the bad side of a genius.

Jayne's Prologue

Jayne sighed and stared longingly out the window again. He still couldn't believe that he'd gotten away with it at school, only to come home and be given detention by his own mother! How had she known?

"It's for your own good, Jayne." His older sister stood in the kitchen doorway.

Of course. Tattler. Well, he'd just have to make sure that she got hers…

"It weren't right, Jayne. You can't keep thinking you can get out of schoolwork by playing the class clown." So superior. He wanted to wipe that smug look off her face…

"It's okay that it's hard, but you have to try." That stopped him in his revenge planning. His own sister calling him dumb. Nice.

He turned away to look back out the window at the perfect hunting and fishing afternoon. Not a big one, mind you, big fish and big animals needed to be tracked down in the early dawn hours, right before they settled down in their daytime hiding places away from people looking to eat. But you could still make a decent light snack, or even dinner, out of the few dumber fish or stupid rodents too addled-pated to hide from a young boy's afternoon of practicing-to-be-a-man time.

The worst thing was, she was right. Jayne did have a hard time in math class. All year he had struggled, except for that one section on monetary calculations and percentages. He'd spent enough time around his Dad at market to know a deal.

So when algebra had rolled around, Jayne decided he'd had enough. He knew small farming, hunting, fishing, how to fix a roof- well, wasn't that all a man needed to know to get along in life? His father had seemed to think so, but he lost the argument when Jayne had requested to quit school. His mother had scolded his father royally, seemingly convinced that Jayne should stay in school and learn even more than he already knew. And his sister had backed her up, even as they eavesdropped by the back door. Jayne hadn't stopped glaring at her for a week.

"What is your problem?! I gots all I need, whyfore you and Ma gotta make a huge deal 'bout this?!" Jayne yelled at her.

She sighed. "Because Mom wants more for you than what they have, this life."

Jayne squinted. "What's wrong with this? We gots everything we need, don't we?"

And that afternoon, Jayne got his first lesson in reality. His sister explained to him, in great detail, just how hard his parents worked to keep them fed, clothed, and that roof over their heads. That even though basic survival skills were important, they wanted more for their kids, they wanted them to not have to struggle so hard, to have a little bit better. Jayne had promised her that he would try harder.

And he did. Bright and early the next morning, he set off for school. He set himself up a nice waiting place about a quarter mile from the school, and proceeded to exact a dime toll from every first year student that passed that way. He knew, despite what his sister had said, that he weren't ever gonna get anywhere with that algebra stuff, but he could bring home his Ma some nice cloth to maybe make herself a pretty new dress.

The 'Other Man's' Prologue

Young David waited until he heard the closing click of the front door as his mother finally left for her charity planning committee meeting. He slid out of bed, pulled the thermometer further away from its proximity to the light bulb, and headed over to his desk. His computer fired up, David proceeded to hack his way into the school's grade files, where he gave himself five A's and an A-, and he then gave cute little Sally Stratton a couple of A's too. He reset the backdoor passwords, then cut the connection. They couldn't backtrack me if I drew the map myself and handed it to them, he smiled, serenely pleased with himself.

Translation:

xi xie gui: bloodsucking


	2. Workin' for a Livin'

Disclaimer: 1) a renunciation of any claim to or connection with; 2) disavowal; 3) a statement made to save one's own ass.  
Rating: PG for language

Logline (adopted from _Sneakers_): Two ex-soldiers, a fugitive doctor and psychic, a mercenary, a mechanic, a fly-boy, and a high class whore...and these are the good guys.

Series: The Key

Ch. 2 Workin' For a Livin'

Jayne took another sip out of his bag covered bottle, hiccupped, and leaned his head back against the wall beside the step he was sitting on. The sun had set about a half hour ago and no one thought twice about the large, apparently drunk man lounging near the alley. As the foot traffic became sparse, Jayne quietly commented to no one.

"Lookin' good here, Cap."

"S'alright, let's go," Mal replied back through the earpiece. Zoe moved into position.

The manhole cover down the alleyway popped off easily. Zoe rolled it to the side, managing to scrape some grease onto the Captain's coverall uniform.

"Nice," Mal grumbled, swiping at the stain.

"Yes, Sir, I'm sorry I wrecked your clothes for the ball," quipped Zoe.

Mal stopped. "Let's just get this done with. Kaylee, you got everything you need?"

Kaylee stepped forward, the only one there who looked perfectly at home in the bright yellow uniform coveralls they had swiped from the local electrician's guild office.

"Yep, Cap'n, good to go," she smiled, somehow lighting up the dim alleyway. She patted the shoulder bag affectionately, then accepted Mal's hand in clambering over the edge of the ladder to climb down into the hole in the ground. A few seconds passed before Mal called to her.

"You down yet?"

"Yupperoo, Cap'n! Wow! You should see all the stuff down here! Electrical conduits, water pipes, gas lines…it's like there ain't no dirt under the ground at all! Wonder what's holding up the buildings?" she mused.

Mal smiled at his mechanic's antics, but he had to get them moving. "Well I know what's holding up this little job, Kaylee, now let's focus, dong ma?"

"Yes sir, Cap'n Grumpypants sir!" she cheerfully called up. She turned up the dimmer on her cap light and swiveled around to pop off the access panel on the wall opposite the ladder. Inside it looked like someone had cooked off a huge pot of rainbow-colored spaghetti and thrown it against the wall. Wires of every color crisscrossed in every direction. What a mess, Kaylee thought to herself. Who was in charge of communications around here anyways?

She pulled some wire cutters, strippers, and various sized clamps out of her bag and proceeded to begin the dissection.

Wash was having a Jurassic-sized discussion regarding the economics of a possible crop cooperative amongst the herbivores when the call came in.

"Wash?" Kaylee called. "I'm in, you reading any of this?"

Wash clean-swept the console, then quickly reviewed the readouts.

"Not there yet, little Kaylee."

In front of Wash on one screen were the electrical and architectural schematics for the facility they were attempting to break into. On a second screen, Wash could read the communications activity involving said facility- or he would be able to as soon as Kaylee figured out which metallic spaghetti combo to clamp onto.

Kaylee methodically began clamping and releasing wires as her and Wash discussed progress. Mal and Zoe waited patiently topside. Well, Zoe waited patiently.

"Well, this is goin' well," Mal looked hopefully at Zoe.

His first mate nodded stoically. "Yes it is sir."

Mal sighed. "Kaylee!" he whisper-yelled, "what in 'tarnation are you doin' down there! Sayin' 'hello' to the local rodents?"

"Almost there Cap'n!" she called cheerfully back. She ignored his impatience; she and Wash knew what they were doin' and could get the job done faster without Mal's interference.

"Wash, how's that one?" she asked.

"No, but it looks like we got two out of three, why don't you keep trying that same row."

Kaylee stared at the mess of tangled wires in front of her. "Um, yeah, right." She proceeded to clip a few more wires when suddenly Wash piped in.

"There! Hold it, try one back, yup, that's it! Captain, I'm in!" Wash's voice rang into Mal's head.

Zoe smirked knowingly. "That's my man."

"A'right, a'right," Mal huffed. "Jayne, we still clear?"

"Not a soul out 'ere, Cap'n. They's all moved off to more 'citin parts a couple blocks over." He sounded sad.

Mal snorted. "Don't worry, we'll be done with this job early enough that you'll still have time to find some _entertainment_. Captain out," he finished.

Jayne stiffened; at Mal's last pronouncement there had been a shimmer of movement in the darkened doorway across from Jayne. Not noticeable if someone had passed by just then, if you didn't already know that someone was stationed in the doorway. Jayne lifted and crooked one finger slightly, _keep still_ it said.

River was annoyed, she didn't think she had moved at all. She thought back to Mal's off-handed comment about _entertainment_; maybe she had taken a little deeper breathe than was necessary. It had bothered her, then it had bothered her that she didn't know _why_ it had bothered her. She had known Jayne for over a year now, it wasn't like his habits were new to her. Although lately, the thought of those habits had become a source of irritation.

The first time she had felt this way was about a month ago- they had another job similar to this one. Everything had actually gone according to 'plan', albeit maybe because it was Inara's plan as opposed to the Captain's. They had gotten their individual shares back on board Serenity, then had split up to get whatever supplies or shopping was needed. Jayne had put on his ugly striped shirt and left the boat whistling. He and River had been paired up on the job yet again; Mal had thought he was doing the right thing pairing up his inexperienced muscle with his more experienced muscle. Goodness knows River had the skills- everyone agreed that she just needed a little real world experience. Jayne could provide that on jobs, be a mentor of sorts.

And so far it had been going well. The first job, Jayne had appeared to treat her as the weapon she was- he had kept her back, out of sight, until he needed to pull the trigger. He had treated her as if she was a loose trigger, only letting her assist when absolutely needed to even the odds and end the fight, then had immediately reined her in. He had not let her kill anyone, only incapacitate. She was a little confused by this and questioned him on it when they had gotten back to the boat. Mal had been the only one to get hurt, and even that was just a graze.

"I don't understand," she complained, "no one would have gotten hurt if you had just let me go." She knew that Jayne, Mal, heck, that everyone knew that she could take them all out but that she was voluntarily acquiescing to their command. She wouldn't have had it any other way- they gave her the one thing money couldn't buy her on a Core planet: family. She had taken to pulling small pranks around the ship for the sole purpose of getting caught and lectured; the sense of responsibility and loyalty she felt from them at times overwhelmed her, making her feel almost as happy as Kaylee.

"I don't understand," she repeated, tugging at Jayne's sleeve. He was pouring out two glasses of water to place beside the two plates already on the table. He handed one to her and pointed towards the table. "Sit."

She sat down opposite him; on the plates were some cookies she knew he had just received from his mother. They were a little stale from their time in post, but that just made them a little crispy. River looked up at him stunned. He was giving her his mother's cookies?

Jayne sat down, shoved a whole cookie in his mouth, and proceeded to give a post-job lecture, complete with crumbs spraying everywhere.

"You don't kill people unless ya have ta', dong ma?" He looked directly into her eyes to make his point. She had never realized before how blue they were. Like the sky above that resort her parents used to take her and Simon to when they were little…

"Woman, ya listenin' to me?" Jayne harshly cut into her daydream.

She bolted upright. "Yes, okay. But how do I differentiate…"

"For now, ya don' need to do any differnti-nothin'. Just shoot when I tells ya to, and not otherwise." He crammed another cookie into his mouth and proceeded to review the entire job they had done that day from beginning to end, answering any other questions she had. She was amazed at the attention to detail; whilst appearing casual and indifferent during the job, she now realized that he saw everything, took into account all possible outcomes, and cared more about human life than he let on.

As he grunted in satisfaction that the lesson was over for that day and pushed away from the table, she remembered what he had said when they had first sat down.

"You called me woman," she stated, looking back into those clear blue eyes.

"Well ain't ya? Ya're eighteen, ya gots the parts, and, well, ya ain't killin' no one unless it's absolutely necessary." He left the mess muttering to himself.

"T'ain't right, young woman killin' people anyways, mess ya head up…"

River watched him leave, her head a jumble. He knew she was a trained weapon- yet he saw her as a woman. Huh. That was new.

There had been a few legit jobs after that, simple cargo transports where the only party they needed to watch out for was the Alliance with their ridiculous tariff and export laws. People had been cooperating a little more with each other since Miranda; they had apparently decided that the Alliance was more in the way of them living their lives than their neighbors were. River and Jayne had security duty more often than not, where Jayne would spend the time lecturing River on possible real world scenarios. There seemed to be a lot more factors to consider than the scenarios the Academy had presented her with. There it had always been, 'we good, they bad, kill'. She was learning from Jayne about all the shades of grey in the 'verse, that everyone thought they were righteous.

She was also learning a lot about Jayne himself. Although he never said it, it was obvious that his examples were from situations he had lived through. There was a pattern too, one that she added to her growing list of things she appreciated about the man- he never struck first. He may have killed many men, but he wasn't in the habit of being pro-active about it, just pro-active in the self-defense department.

Having gained a measure of control over her abilities since Miranda, River enjoyed these conversations even more since she didn't have everyone's thoughts pushing into her all the time anymore. She had started observing and practicing Jayne's and Inara's way of reading people: body language. When she was unsure of a situation she still skimmed over their surface thoughts, though.

So when, about a month ago, Jayne had left the boat with a whistle and a pocketful of coin, she could see what his body language was screaming. He was obviously going whore shopping. She decided to make sure, as she was feeling unhappy about that, although she couldn't say why. So she lightly reached out with her mind towards Jayne. And frowned. She poked a little deeper, but was stopped. There was a wall there, one that hadn't been there before. Huh. When had that happened? She reached out to the others, and was easily able to discern their surface thoughts and feelings. She reached back to Jayne. No such luck.

So she would to have to assume, based on external cues alone, that he was really going whoring. Sigh. Why did this bother her so?

Across town, Jayne smirked as the hundun next to him raised the bet. This was like takin' candy from babes, he thought. His self-assurance was niggled a little though when a tall buxom blonde came over to sit on his lap and he politely shook his head no. Huh. When did he start refusin' a little company?

"Jayne! Jayne!" Mal's voice rasped in both their ears. "Can I have a status report? Where the hell are you?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're all clear here," Jayne came back to the present. Across from him River stood up a little straighter. Jayne caught her unreadable expression; they had both better start paying attention while they were still on the job, gorramit. He checked the street both ways. There was only a couple, hand in hand, starting to walk down, nuzzling each other. Jayne glanced back at River, who wrinkled her nose in disgust at the couple's public display of affection, then looked over at Jayne and rolled her eyes. He grinned slightly back at her, but did not miss that when she looked back to the couple her facial expression changed to one of envy.


	3. Still Workin'

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 3- Still Workin'

Mal waited impatiently while Kaylee fiddled with the electronic lock on the fire vault door. What a bizarre place to have a back entrance, he thought.

"What a bizarre place to have a back door, don't'cha think Cap'n?" Kaylee commented cheerfully. "Guess they wanted to make sure they could grab the money if'n they had to escape from a fire, huh?"

"Maybe so, little Kaylee," Mal agreed. The door popped open with a soft whoosh, like it had been sealed for some time. Probably had, only with Kaylee's and Wash's work on heightening the sensors had they even had an indication of its existence. Mal pushed past Kaylee, Zoe following.

"Kaylee, you head back to Serenity, Zoe and I got it from here."

"Okay, Cap'n!"

Mal and Zoe slipped inside the door and started down the short corridor. There was one more door they had to go through, but it was an interior door within the vault system, simply meant to section it off, not secure it.

Except when they reached it, there was a funny looking grey box attached to the door right above the handle.

"Uh-oh," Mal did not like the look of this at all.

"Kaylee?" hopefully she hadn't gotten far.

"Yup, Cap'n? I'm okay, no need to worry, I'm almost back to the ship. Wash has an eye on ya now."

"Wash? Can you see us?" Mal peered up at the camera mounted high behind him and Zoe.

"Sure can. You guys look clear to me."

Mal grimaced and looked at Zoe. "You know how to do this lock?"

"Sir, I have a gun. You already sent away our locksmith."

"Right. Okay, Wash, you see this here lock on the door?"

Wash peered closer to the screen and then zoomed in a little.

"Yep, it's another electronic one. We didn't think there'd be one on the inside, but Kaylee should be able to crack that baby."

"What am I crackin'?" Kaylee stepped onto the bridge behind Wash.

Wash jerked back at her voice, then looked back at the screen. "Uh-oh."

Mal was headed into full-blown annoyance. "This was supposed to be a simple job! What the…"

"Sir," Zoe interjected, "we can still do this, we'll just have Kaylee and Wash explain it over the wire."

"The whole point of having her here…" Mal started.

"Sir, we're running out of time. She's not here now, let's just do what we can." Always the voice of reason, Mal let her rationale calm him.

"Okay, l'il Kaylee, you're gonna have to do this one remotely, and please remember, I need this in Captain dummy-speak."

"No prob, Cap'n here's what you do…" Kaylee proceeded to give Mal detailed instructions while he stared nodding at the contraption, daring it to just fall off.

"Got it?" she finished.

"Got it," Mal said somewhat confidently. He looked back at Zoe and they nodded seriously at each other. If this didn't work, they were through. Their present employers did not pay for failures. Mal took one step back, lifted his right leg high, and proceeded to bash in the door at doorhandle-height. The door popped open with a small bang.

Mal smiled back at Zoe. "Good job people. Let's go." He stepped through into the vault.

Topside and across the street, River was only half paying attention as she continued to analyze her reaction to the suggestion of Jayne's possible post-job 'entertainment'. The couple that had been nuzzling each other all the way down the street had passed, and there was no one else around this section of town, all day businesses. Two blocks over, however, were the 'night' businesses, with the bars, gambling, and whores. She glanced over at Jayne again; he was looking in the direction the couple had gone. She sighed, it wasn't like his habits were new news to anyone, it was just that she had started to have an inkling that she knew why they were bothering her and she didn't like it. Simon would be horrified, she smiled to herself. But then maybe not, they had all, quietly, become closer over the last few months, to the point that even Jayne and Simon really were only kidding when they teased each other. One wouldn't say the word 'friends' out loud, but there was a loyalty there not present before. Except during hoopball of course, then all loyalties were up for grabs. River smiled again.

Jayne looked around, he couldn't figure out what River kept smiling at. He flashed her a quick hand signal, _what's up?_ Her fingers flicked back, _nothing._ He frowned and checked the street again, taking another swig of water from the liquor bottle. It had the slight twinge of leftover whiskey to it, something to hold him over until they were done and he could hit the bars, and get some tr…

He frowned again and looked back over at River. He hadn't gotten any in over a couple months, and couldn't figure out why. Every time he went out lately, he'd grab a drink and a chair at a card game, clean out his competition, and go home. And it wasn't like he was unable to get a woman for himself- everywhere the crew was dirtside he ran into some working girl that remembered him with great fondness, and willingness. But suddenly it felt all wrong; it felt wrong to smile at them, wrong to run his fingers lightly up their arms, wrong to go back to their rooms. He always ended up leaving early to head back to the ship, sneaking in and slipping down to his bunk so he wouldn't have to answer any jibes or questions as to why he was back so early, and not any more relaxed than he was when he left.

And he had winced when Mal had said 'entertainment', and immediately looked for River's reaction. Not that her feelings on the subject mattered. They were partners during jobs, and they got along well enough back at the ship, but that was all. Well okay, there was also their workout time together. And he had been teaching her how to cook. And she had been trying to teach him how to throw knives accurately without looking. Hmm. Now that he thought about it, seemed like they was spending an awful lot of time together. Not that it was awful, in fact, he rather enjoyed having someone to hang out with in between jobs, someone who talked to him like an equal. He almost felt that they were, equal that is. They both had talents the other didn't, but when paired together everything seemed to work seamlessly. Most times they didn't even talk to each other during jobs, or actually not even that much while they were working out, or…hmm.

Jayne looked across the street again, noticing that River had on the black jeans he liked. Not that he liked her, just that, well, yeah, black was fitting for night work. And they were fitting her well, he started to leer, then remembered who he was having those thoughts about. Stupid hundun, he mentally shook his head. She's crew, ain't to be thought of that way.

Mal crackled in. "Jayne, River, we're all set here. Coming out."

Both Jayne and River took a quick glance around. "All clear up here, Cap."

Mal and Zoe exited the alleyway a couple minutes later, Mal mumbling something about Zoe having to get grease on him coming and going. They turned up the street without acknowledging Jayne and River. When Mal and Zoe had been out of sight for a minute, Jayne's com crackled again.

"We're clear," Mal said. Jayne stood up, stretched, and started to walk the other direction down the street. After a few seconds, he realized River wasn't with him. He turned to see her standing just outside the doorway she had been stationed in, hesitating and alternately looking down the street the way the Captain and Zoe had gone, and then towards the way Jayne was headed.

"Watcha' waitin' fer?" Jayne called.

River hesitated. "Am I supposed to follow the Captain?" she questioned.

"No," Jayne said. "He said they was 'all clear'. Job's done. We're free to go." He stopped, realizing that she knew this; what she didn't know was whether or not Jayne was leaving to go find the Captain's suggested 'entertainment'.

"Come on," he called. "I'm hungry. Let's go get somethin' to eat." He smiled at her encouragingly.

She smiled back (she lights up the whole gorram street with that smile, Jayne thought) and jogged to catch up to him.


	4. Appetizer

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch.4- Appetizer

"Easy Pieces," the sign above the restaurant door read. Jayne had asked a passing rickshaw driver for a cheap, but decent, restaurant, and had been directed here.

"Sounds like a whorehouse," he muttered to himself, looking nervously sideways at River. They usually all met up after jobs at local watering holes, but Jayne decided that tonight they needed a change of pace. Either that or I'm gettin' old, he thought. Skippin' bars for a restaurant, wasn't that what old people did?

River looked at the sign skeptically- Jayne had said something about a real restaurant, but the name of this establishment evoked images of a whorehouse. Surely he wouldn't be bringing her to one? She glanced at him sideways, noting his nose was scrunched up like he was trying to figure out some math problem that didn't involve counting munitions.

Jayne reached to open the door, took a quick look inside, and relaxed. There were families and small groups of people at the tables. A waitress whipped by carrying a tray full of plates topped off with hamburgers, fried chicken fingers, and salads. Good. A cheap, decent restaurant. The kind he could afford to bring a woman to…wait a minute. They was here after a job, that was all. She was crew now, got paid same as the rest of 'em, she could carry her own weight. Well, she had been doing a good job lately, couldn't hurt to treat her once in a while.

He stepped back, still holding the door open, and looked to River.

"Looks okay," he said. She looked at him flattening himself against the door, then realized that he holding it open for her. She smiled shyly and slipped passed him into the restaurant. The hostess saw them and grabbed two menus.

"Smoking or non?" she inquired pleasantly. Jayne started to say 'smokin', then caught River crinkling her nose as she looked over at the adjoining haze-filled room.

"Non," he said. River smiled up at him. Dam, he thought. All these years of bein' on my own, and all of a sudden I'm doin' things I never would'a, like for other people and such. He grimaced and motioned for River to follow the hostess.

They were seated at the far end of a row of small tables in a quiet section.

"Lara has just started her shift, so ya two have the waitress to yerselves for a bit," the hostess explained. Jayne hesitated near River's chair, but she grabbed it and sat down before Jayne had to make a decision regarding just how far his manners were going to get exercised this evening. Jayne gratefully hopped over to his side of the table and sat down.

River picked up her menu and started reading, getting more excited by the second. Here were all the foods she and Simon had been forbidden to have when they were young. All fried and grilled and greasy. Her mother always told them they would get fat if they ate that sort of food even once; her father was just sure that people at their economic level wouldn't be caught dead in a cheap establishment. She giggled. Well, Mommy and Daddy, I think that after surviving a little torture that I'm due a few extra spicy chicken wings, maybe even a large order of fries.

Jayne looked up at her giggle. "What's so funny in the menu?" he asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking how my parents would hate it if they knew I was eating at a place like this. You know, compared to the gourmet food at the Academy."

Jayne knew she had been trying out sarcasm as a joking method, with Wash's special tutorage, but her comment hurt him. As their friendship and working relationship had been growing, so had his sense of responsibility grown. If he ever had the misfortune to meet River's parents, or actually, if they ever had the misfortune to meet him, he wasn't sure he would be able to restrain himself from giving them the beating of their lives. Parents were supposed to take care of their kids, not shove them aside in a never-ending quest for more status, money, and power.

River realized her misstep. Jayne would always listen when she wanted to talk about the past, but he always became tense and uncomfortable. At first she had thought it was because of his past mistake; but even after he had apologized and she had made clear that she forgave him, he still became tense whenever she mentioned the Academy or her parents. She tried not to do it often, but what he perhaps didn't realize was that he was the only one she ever talked about it to. Everyone else would just become too upset; Jayne was the only one who restrained himself enough to let her finish what she had to say. He knew it was about her exercising her demons, not someone else's reaction to her past.

Jayne saw her start to school her features into an apology, but he didn't want one. Girl had a right to get things off her chest, even if they put him in the killing mood. He had to fix things so they didn't go downhill. He just wanted a nice, quiet dinner with the girl. Gorramit, this was starting to sound like a date. Which of course it wasn't. You don't date your co-workers, causes complications.

"Alright," he said, "then let's order stuff that would really get their goat." He gave her his mischievous smile. "Me, I'm gonna get the extra large burger with cheese and fried mushrooms. And somma them big-ass steak fries."

River grinned back. "I think I'll have the spicy, boneless chicken fingers, and…" she pretended to peruse the menu seriously, then looked up at Jayne. "And the 'big-ass' steak fries." Her smile grew, proud of the lack of nutrition she was about to blow money on.

"Good girl," Jayne grinned back. The waitress was approaching them: however, she seemed to have a large contingent of people following her. She took ahold of the edge of the small table closest to them and began to pull it over.

"Your friends here wanted to join you," she smiled, waving her hand towards the rest of the crew who had just shown up. Jayne grimaced.

"Well, howdy there Jayne, River," Mal greeted them theatrically, as if they hadn't all parted ways in an alley near here a half hour ago.

River beamed. "I'm ordering grease, Simon!"

Simon stuttered. "Uh, okay. If you really want to," he got a glimpse of the menu. "Oh, mei-mei, there are some nice salads here…ow!" A large spit ball, formerly a paper napkin dipped in a water glass, hit him dead center in the forehead. Jayne snickered.

"I think someone who earns her own salary can order whatever she wants, Doc," Zoe gently reminded him, as everyone seemed to do on a regular basis, that River was growing up and was capable of making daily decisions for herself. Simon was aware that he was having a hard time letting go, but he _was_ trying. River herself didn't fight or reprimand him- everyone else was doing it for her, so she decided to give him a break. Well, except for the occasional spitball. Or salt in his coffee. Or ketchup in his soup. Actions that let him know that even though she was growing up, she would always be his little sister.

"Of course," Simon backed down ruefully. Jayne, making it a point lately to stay out of the siblings business, couldn't help flicking a sign of approval to River. _Nice shot,_ his crooked index finger spoke. River giggled.

Zoe raised an eyebrow, but didn't call anyone's attention to their private conversation. A few weeks ago she had been keeping an eye on them when she first noticed them becoming closer, but when it became apparent that Jayne wasn't interested in taking advantage of her and that they actually seemed to be becoming friends, she backed off. She squeezed Wash's knee under the table. It was lonely out in the black; if two people decided to make it a little less lonely for each other, well, nothin' wrong with that.

Jayne wasn't thrilled that everyone else had shown up, but he wasn't about to raise a fuss when it would only cause questions. Like why, exactly, would he have preferred to have dinner alone with River? He glanced across the table at her; she was engaged in a cross-table discussion with Kaylee, but was aware of his scrutiny. _We can talk later,_ she flashed to him. Jayne turned to listen to Wash's hi-larious description of the look on Mal's face when they had realized during the job that there was a second lock and Kaylee had already been sent back to the ship. Jayne snorted, something always went screwy no matter how legit the job, or how well-planned. Never easy on the crew of Serenity, never easy.

The rest of the crew ordered their favorite versions of what River called 'formerly forbidden pleasure foodstuffs' and their dinners arrived shortly after. Conversation came to a stuttering halt, as one by one, plates were delivered and faces began to be stuffed. Only the occasional comment was heard, such as, "that good?" and "oh, try this!"

Jayne looked over at River. She was concentrating on trying to eat her chicken without losing any of the sauce dripping off. His attention wavered when a tall, blonde waitress walked past their table smiling at Jayne. Just then, River stuck her tongue out and proceeded to lick up the entire length of the chicken finger she was currently holding.

Jayne almost dropped his sandwich. What the hell? No, she couldn't have done that on purpose, she was too innocent for it to have been anything else besides her trying to save the sauce. Course that was when she stuck her little pink tongue out again to lick the sauce off her top lip. From one side to the other. While looking him straight in the eye. Jayne swallowed.

The blonde waitress walked by again in the other direction, slowing down to wink at Jayne, but he didn't see her. He was too busy watching a small brown haired girl eat greasy, spicy, chicken fingers for the first time. But not her last time, not if he had anything to say about it.


	5. Main Course

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 5- Main Course

Mal was returning from the restroom after having a powerful need to wash the fry grease from dinner off his hands. As he was passing the bar area, a hand reached out to touch his arm non-threatening like, but Mal whirled all the same. A man of medium height stepped towards him, palms up, offering his right hand to shake.

"Name's David Janek, Captain Reynolds." Man seemed polite enough, but how he knew Mal's name needed to be explained right quick in Mal's estimation.

"I'm sure you're wondering who I am. You were recommended, and described, to me by another cargo transport Captain, a Captain 'Monty'." David smiled, trying to get Mal to relax. Man seemed a mite jumpy for someone Monty had described as a 'simple cargo transporter'.

Mal relaxed a little. "Well, now, got me a schedule to keep, but don't see as we can't talk a little 'bout what your needs might be." He offered him his hand, then moved to sit across from the man at the small round bar table he was standing next to. He wanted to screen the potential customer first before introducing the crew. He knew Zoe would have seen him by now and be keeping at least one eye on him.

&&&&&&&

Back at their pushed together tables, Kaylee noticed Mal was talking to someone she didn't recognize.

"Looks like the Cap'n got hisself a new friend," she commented.

Jayne looked over. "Maybe some decent work that pays."

"Our job today paid okay," Kaylee answered.

Jayne snorted at the same time Zoe did. "Jus enough to keep goin' ain't 'well' l'il Kaylee." The waitress came up just then to drop off their checks; she had already started one for Jayne and River so she had a separate one for the rest of the group. As everyone reached into their pockets to divide up the bill, Jayne swiped his and River's check off table as she went to reach for it. She looked at him questioningly, but he ignored her as he handed over to the waitress both the check and enough cash to cover it and the tip. The waitress smiled and moved off.

River stared at him dumbfounded. When Simon paid for her she knew it was because he still felt like he had to take care of her completely; but just now, when Jayne grabbed the bill, it felt different. He had bought her dinner, and now he was trying to not meet her eyes and act all nonchalant about it. No one else noticed except Zoe. She smiled to herself and vowed to keep her silence unless Mal started noticing and decided to butt in.

River wiggled her index finger. Jayne continued to not make full eye contact with her, but jerked his right fingers an inch as he answered Wash's comment, _don't worry about it._ River smiled her thank you. Jayne realized he had no idea what Wash had just said, what with the bright light coming from across the table and blinding his peripheral vision.

He couldn't help but smile; which was fortunate as everyone started laughing at Wash's joke, so it was appropriate. He was fighting himself against not looking at River just then. He felt like if he did, he would give himself away. He had less and less control lately against smiling back when the girl smiled at him.

Mal returned to their table. "Well, people, looks like we've been fortunate enough to line up back to back jobs here." He plopped down into his chair with a Captainy air of self satisfaction.

"What's that, Sir," Zoe asked.

"Computer components. Going out to Bristol Moon. Seems the locals there are ready to upgrade a bit. This guy Janek, he sells a couple steps behind the latest and greatest so's Rimmers can get better then they got, and he can find buyers who can afford his goods." Mal seemed to almost admire the man's commercial savvy.

"Sounds like a good deal for both sides," Simon commented as they all pushed back from the tables to leave.

As they exited out into the cool night air, Mal turned to Jayne.

"Well, we're shoving off tomorrow late morning after I pick up our payment for tonight and our newest client delivers his cargo to the ship, so that should be enough time, Jayne, for…"

"Sir!" Zoe interjected. "Jayne and I will be sure to secure the cargo in the a.m. before you get back so we can take off early." Mal looked confused. Kaylee had caught on by this time, and sliding her crooked arm through her Captain's she began to gaily chatter about what she would do with her portion of the pay, and wonder what the new client's like, and what exactly were the components they were going to be transporting, and …

Jayne had stopped in his tracks when it looked like the Captain was about to put his foot in Jayne's mouth again. He was grateful for his crewmates' interruption, especially surprised at Zoe. Then again, she knew what it was like to work around the Captain when it came to developing crew friendships. Wash even looked back at him and jerked his head, _get out of here while you can._

Jayne looked to River. Her facial expression was smooth and unreadable, which only meant one thing. She was pissed. He looked back toward the crew, all of them in front of him and for the moment not looking back- he took a chance. He wrapped one arm around River's shoulders and steered her due right. Around a street corner and away from Mal's big mouth.

Jayne actually had had no intention of going anywhere but back to the ship. But Mal just had to spout off his big, fat mouth didn't he? Now River was mad, and while he was still just going back to the ship he now had to take the long way around. Well, he didn't have to, but he didn't want Mal to start ribbing him on why he wasn't going out.

River wasn't sure what was going on or why she had let Jayne steer her away from the crew, but she trusted him. Maybe he needed to pick up some more ammo. Or booze. Although he didn't need her for that. She looked up at him out of the corner of her eye. Surely he wouldn't take her to a whorehouse.

And he still had his arm around her. Not steering her anymore, didn't need to on the straight street they were currently on, just sort of resting on her, his hand hanging off her right shoulder. Not entirely unpleasant.

Jayne felt awkward. Okay, now that he had gotten the girl away from Mal's big, embarrassing mouth, he should take his arm off of her. Instead, he felt like grabbing her shoulder and pulling her closer. He had to figure out a way to nonchalantly lose the arm.

The street they had turned onto seemed to be some sort of boardwalk near a small river. There were families and small groups of people similar to those they had seen at the restaurant earlier, walking and talking, and stopping to shop at the various booths aligning the walkway. There were vendors selling cheap jewelry, old books, home thrown pottery, and even some sort of flavored icy concoction called 'gelato' according to the sign.

Jayne pulled his right arm from around River and pointed toward the gelato stand.

"Look, ya still hungry?" he casually asked her. Phew, rescued the arm situation.

River didn't know whether to feel relief or disappointment at the disappeared arm. "Not now," she answered, "maybe later. Ooh, look." And she stepped away to go look at one of the cheap jewelry stands.

Well, she didn't have to run away from me, Jayne thought. His thoughts kept ping-ponging back and forth between relief at their new distance, and, well, missing her against his side. She was leaning over the open display case eagerly perusing the vendor's wares. He stepped up behind her to see what had arrested her interest.

River had stepped away at the first opportunity, as she had felt relief wash over Jayne when he managed to take his arm off her shoulder. She was positive that he did, in fact, like her, but she knew he was fighting it and didn't want to push him. He was losing the fight all on his own anyways. She smiled to herself and started jewelry shopping.

There were lots of gold chains and pendants at this vendor's stand, but what really caught her eye were the cloisonné hair pieces. Tiny and colorful, the smooth inlaid stones encrusted the ends of barrettes, stickpins, hair combs, and chopsticks. River giggled, she could just imagine the crew's reaction if she showed up to dinner one night, whipped a fancy pair of chopsticks out of her hair, and began eating protein mush with them.

Then she felt Jayne step up behind her. She had thought maybe he would pass on to the next vendor who was displaying a variety of leather wares: shoulder harnesses, wrist cuffs, and holsters. But no, he was right behind her, leaning over her to see what she was looking at. She could feel the heat of his large body. She swallowed nervously in reaction to electricity she could suddenly feel bridge the two inch gap between their bodies. This was ridiculous, she thought. They'd been closer together in lookout situations before.

Jayne looked over River's shoulder to see the fancy, shiny stones adorning the various pieces. He felt her attention waver from the items to him. He experimentally leaned in a little further and arched over her shoulder, his neck practically touching the side of hers. He heard her breathe catch.

"That one looks pretty," he said, reaching over her other shoulder to point to the cloisonné end-encrusted chopsticks. He turned his head slightly so he was looking at River at her eye level. "And they're long 'nough to keep all that hair ya got in place."

She turned her head and looked directly into his eyes. And realized that what had attracted her to the chopsticks in the first place was that the largest stone on the end of each matched the blue in his eyes perfectly. Their faces an inch apart, she could feel his breathe on her lips.

"I do like them," she whispered. Jayne felt like the world around them was dropping away. He couldn't remember why he had ever thought it wasn't a good idea to think on her. He leaned in.

"So! What kind of a deal can we make today for the little lady?" the vendor barked.

Jayne wondered if he could use 'interrupted an intimate moment' as self defense in a homicide case. He sighed and stood back up, extra straight so as to at least intimidate the man.

"I'll take them fancy chopsticks ya got there," he settled for. The vendor, upon realizing just how tall Jayne could get, didn't bother haggling, just practically handed them over. Jayne stepped off to the side to get out of the way of other shoppers, River following him.

"Turn 'round," he said gruffly. She did without question. He gathered up her silky hair at the back of her head, twisted it around, and stuck the chopsticks through. He let his hands fall to his sides.

River turned back around and stared at Jayne. "Thank you," she said softly. He shuffled one foot over the ground like a schoolboy. "T'weren't nothin'," he grunted. He decided to shift gears.

"Come on, it's gettin' late, we should get back to the boat," he said trying to regain his gruff self. Which he decided was a losing battle around her. "We should bring somma that 'gelato' stuff back to Kaylee or we'll never hear the end of it." River smiled her agreement. They turned toward the dessert vendor.


	6. Payday

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch.6- Payday

Mal walked up the stone steps and through the rising columns and grimaced. Even though this place wasn't officially connected to the Alliance, it still had that rigid, institutional feel. The Bank of New Bisten had started out as a small, family-run settlement bank, but as the years had successfully passed, it had grown into a sizeable little financial front on the moon.

The glass doors slid open automatically as Mal approached the top of the steps. He walked briskly down the black carpet runner swinging a metal brief case past the teller windows, up one flight of stairs, and through a set of glass doors without pausing or knocking. A guard stepped forward as Mal walked directly towards the desk stationed midway in the room, but the sharp-suited gentleman sitting behind it waved him off. Mal swung the briefcase onto the desk.

"Yer guards are asleep, your communications vulnerable, and your firewall is a joke," Mal stated. He looked around at the group of men arranged in a semi-circle behind the man sitting at the desk. "Now, who's got my check?"

&&&&&&&

A petite blonde in a perfectly pressed linen suit was scribbling some numbers in a ledger. "So, people hire you to break into their places to make sure no one can break into their places?"

Mal shrugged. "It's a living."

The secretary handed over a check. "Not a very good one."

&&&&&&&

The young, brown haired man hesitated at the foot of Serenity's ramp. He tried peering into the ship but the mid-morning glare bounced off the darkness inside. A voice near his elbow made him jump.

"Isn't she just the shiniest ship here?" Kaylee asked. Her smile was bright and expectant.

The man smiled back. "She sure is. You must be Kaylee?"

Kaylee beamed back. "Yup, you Mr. Janek? Cap'n said you'd be along this mornin'."

"Well, here I am. And the cargo I need transported is right here." He indicated the three large crates on the motorized hand cart behind him.

"Well, ain't that grand, delivering yer own cargo." Kaylee was impressed. She led him up the cargo ramp and stopped in the middle of the bay. He stopped the cart and swung a large backpack down from his shoulder.

"Whew, that was heavy," he smiled at Kaylee.

"You look like yer up to do some travelin' yerself," she commented.

"Well, if you could please point me in the direction of the passenger dorms I'll drop this off and come back out to help unload this stuff."

Kaylee was stumped. The Captain hadn't said anything about taking on passengers. The last passengers they had taken on, actually, had been Shepard Book and the Tams. She sighed, she missed the Shepard.

David looked at her confused. He had obviously said something to make her sad, yet he couldn't figure out what.

"I'm sorry if I said something wrong?" No sense getting off on the wrong foot with these folks.

"Whose wrong about what?" Mal barked, striding up the ramp. He looked at Kaylee, then glared at David. "What'd you say to my mechanic? Don't think your cargo's gonna get there any faster, what with you making my mechanic unhappy and all."

Kaylee intervened. "Oh Cap'n, Mr. Janek didn't say nothin' wrong at all, just was asking 'bout the dorm rooms and I got to thinkin' on the Shepard is all."

Mal turned back to Janek. "Well no need to worry 'bout that, yer cargo isn't stayin' in any passenger rooms, it'll stay right here in the cargo bay. We're a cargo transport ship, don't got no need for passenger berths."

"Cap'n, maybe I didn't make myself clear; _I _am your passenger. I intend to accompany the transport and delivery of these crates. I'm sure if you don't have any rooms available I can make myself quite comfortable in the corner of some common area you may have for the crew." He smiled politely.

Mal stopped for a moment, studying the young man's resolve. "I said we don't transport people, son. I'm sorry, but if you find yourself a powerful need to accompany your freight, then mayhaps you need to find another berth elsewhere."

"Excuse me, Captain," A small voice piped in. Mal stepped aside and turned to who had come up behind him. David's breath hissed softly; the most beautiful girl he had ever seen stood in front of him. Long dark brown hair framing big, soft eyes, she was lithe and petite in a sleek fitting sky blue sundress. She also looked vaguely familiar.

"We're ready when you are for liftoff," River told the Captain. She turned to David. "The reward is no longer valid," she stated simply.

It was Mal's turn to hiss. He whipped around to David, whose eyes had gone wide with recognition. "I think you'd better leave now. We got no room for…"

River interrupted. "There is room in the passenger dorms Captain, for anyone willing to pay." This last part was directed at David.

He swallowed. He was being invited to stay on the same ship as River Tam, _the _River Tam. He was no dummy, he had patched into and seen the same vids Mr. Universe had, he knew exactly who she was. Either she wanted to keep an eye on him to see that he wouldn't cause her trouble, or she was going to wait until takeoff and then kill him. He swallowed again nervously.

River laughed. "Don't be silly. I have no intention of hurting anyone as long as they don't intend to hurt my family. And I think you would not." She stared straight into him. "Besides," she smiled winningly, "don't you want smugglers you can trust?"

Mal was practically apoplectic. Here he had been trying to protect the Tams by only accepting cargo and no passengers, and the 'verse's most wanted shows up and invites someone who looks like trouble aboard _his_ ship. Which it still was, the last time he checked.

Mal attempted to regain control of the situation. "I think…" he started, and got no further. A single gunshot reverberated through the cargo bay. Everyone dove to the deck- Mal drawing and looking around frantically.

Half a dozen men were rapidly approaching the ship, guns drawn. As they neared the ramp the ship suddenly roared to life and lurched off the ground several feet.

"Wash! What the hell is going on?!" Mal yelled.

"I may have told him to take off in 3 minutes if he didn't hear back from you or I," River replied, raising up on her elbows to look at the Captain. David, meanwhile, had managed to scramble backwards on all fours away from the open bay doors. The ship continued to rise.

"Shall I close the bay doors, Sir?" River asked politely, as though they were not in the middle of a firefight.

Mal glared at her. "Yeah, sure, that sounds like a good idea, l'il one. And then maybe someone can explain to me what exactly the hell is going on around here!"

River slid over to the controls and slapped at the button. The bay doors rose up and slammed shut. David stayed crouched on the floor, not sure if he was in more danger here or if he should have stayed in port. River smiled at him, attempting to ease his nervousness.

"He needs our help, Captain," River addressed the seething man. "He needs safe passage, so he can help the people." David's breath hissed for the second time that day- he got the distinct impression that the girl knew more than he would have wanted her to. But then she smiled at him again, and he thought that maybe the situation he found himself in couldn't be all that bad.

"What in the sphincter of hell is going on!!" a giant voice boomed from overhead. David looked up from the girl's brilliant smile to see a hulking, angry giant menacing from a raised catwalk. Maybe the situation _was_ as bad as he thought it was after all.


	7. The Client

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch.7- The Client

"I think an explanation is in order!" Mal towered over their new client. Trying to not appear intimidated, David slowly stood back on his feet and brushed himself off before looking to face one very angry ship's Captain.

"Well," he began, "I'm not used to having to explain myself this many times, but I assure you Captain, I came on board in good faith after our conversation last evening, whereupon you agreed to transport some cargo on your ship, for me, for a set fee. I did not, however, agree to get shot at, thrown to the ground, and generally be mistreated within moments of arriving on said ship." He paused.

Mal was flabbergasted. "I…I…" he looked to River for help, who merely shrugged her shoulders at him. Nothing like crew loyalty. He tried again.

"First of all, you never said anything about transporting _you_, you said cargo. I believe that this is the subject we were debating when your little friends showed up blazing away. Mind telling me why exactly you were getting my crew shot at?!"

"Captain," David answered calmly, "I haven't the faintest idea who those men were. Aren't you, as the little lady put it, smugglers? Perhaps you have offended someone in the past?"

Jayne snorted. No one had noticed his decent into the cargo bay; they had all been too busy peeling themselves off of the floor and yelling accusations. David turned around to see who was behind him. And nearly fell over looking up. While he was not a short man, the man in front of him appeared to be a human wall.

Jayne ignored him. "Ya alright?" he solicitously asked River. She nodded.

David made a mental note of _that_ little dynamic. There was definitely a connection between those two.

Jayne turned to Mal and cracked his knuckles. "Anythin' ya need me ta take care of, Cap'n?" He had yet to acknowledge David's presence, although David himself was fairly sure that if he made any quick moves he would find himself in some sort of crunchy behemoth headlock.

Mal shook his head. He wasn't entirely convinced the man was being upfront, but he _did_ have a point about the crew mayhaps having some leftover enemies. "Well, I'm still not entirely clear on when we discussed transporting human cargo, but you're here, we obviously won't be returning to that dock today, so, well, Kaylee, can you please show Mr. Janek to his quarters."

David nodded his thanks to Mal, picked up his backpack, and followed a bubbling Kaylee. "Well, they ain't much, but they're clean, and near the mess, and…"

"Human cargo?" Jayne questioned. He looked over at the crates nervously. "More crazy girls insida there?"

River kicked him lightly in the shin. "Ow! I's just kiddin'!" He tried to smile at her as he rubbed his shin, but it came out as more of a grimace.

She smiled sweetly. "Of course you're forgiven. Just remember, you have _two_ shins."

"Just him," Mal explained. "And you, l'il one, what was that all about? Borderline insubordination, if'n you ask me."

River shrugged. "You want to help him. Don't know why yet, but he has the same brain as you. Same sense." She skipped off.

Mal and Jayne watched her skip out of the bay. "Sometimes I think she just falls back on the not-making-sense thing just to keep us on our toes," Jayne stated.

Mal sighed. "It's them wiles. They's all got 'em. Come on, let's secure those crates."

They moved over to each take an end and started walking the crates over to the side compartments. Mal decided that now was as good a time as any to broach another touchy little subject.

"So," he started carefully, "River seems to be sportin' a mighty fine hairpiece this mornin', after ya both disappeared last night. Guess you two went shoppin'?"

Jayne shrugged. "Girl works hard at keepin' us from gettin' shot at, can't hurt to thank her every once in a while." He tried to act casual, but would not meet Mal's eyes.

Mal put down his end of the crate so Jayne could slide it into the wall. He stepped back and waited until Jayne stood up and turned to face him.

"Look, when I paired you two together, I was hoping ya wouldn't kill each other, but I also know how close partners can become. We're all glad you two are getting along now, just, well, just be careful Jayne. She's still a young girl without hardly any 'sperience in certain areas, and no one wants to see her gettin' hurt." He stopped and stared hard at Jayne.

Jayne had no trouble looking the Captain in the eye now. "I know. And I ain't fixin' to get anyone hurt, Cap'n." He looked away. "Maybe there's areas both me and River don't have a lot of 'sperience with, okay?" He looked back. "Look, I ain't pushin' anythin' on her, and if'n the Doc says to back off, I will, but I mostly think that, well, River's personal relationships are up ta her. Her decision, dong ma?"

Mal was surprised at the length of Jayne's speech, the honesty, and the willingness to leave decisions in other's hands. He didn't think he could be that willing to give up control of a situation, even if it would make things easier with Inara. He realized that Jayne might have strengths that didn't involve fighting.

Mal nodded. "Okay, just wanted to make sure that we're on the same page when it comes to the welfare of the crew." He smiled then to take the Captainy sting out of his speech. They both knew that while Mal felt the need to look out for River, she was very capable of making Jayne hurt.

And Jayne had proven his loyalty over the past year, repeatedly, to the point that Mal no longer worried about him defecting for money. He had a feeling that a lot of that was due to River's influence; the longer they worked together the more Jayne had exhibited signs of protectiveness and loyalty. At the beginning Jayne had treated his new partner as a teacher/student relationship, albeit grudgingly. As River quickly learned her way around the job, appropriately handling any number of sticky situations, they had graduated to a more equal level, true partnership as it were. Now, it seemed to Mal that something more was on the verge of blossoming, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

He wasn't as blind as he knew the rest of the crew thought him to be. His teasing Jayne about the whoring had been on purpose. He had seen River's puppy eyes directed at Jayne and didn't want her forgetting what kind of man he could be. Even though he had seen that Jayne was capable of change, he knew that some habits die hard, and didn't want the 'verse's most dangerous pair to blow up. On his ship. While they were in space. Gotta figure that wouldn't be pretty.

They slid the last crate into the wall compartment. "I'm gonna get a drink, then go yell at my pilot 'bout that takeoff back there. You comin?"

Just then River walked back into the bay. "I'll be along ina minute, Cap'n," Jayne replied. Mal turned to see River standing there. He looked back at Jayne who was staring at River and had already forgotten him. Mal sighed. He couldn't see this being easy no matter how things turned out. He left the bay.

Jayne walked over to River. "Wanna tell me what's the deal with that guy gettin' us shot at back there? Cause I ain't believin' the 'you guys must have pissed someone off' excuse that the Captain bought."

River smiled up at him. It was all kinds'a distracting lately when she did that.

"It's okay. Ultimately we are doing the right thing," she cryptically replied.

"Nuh-uh. Not with the puzzles. Who is he really? Ya know him? Cause he sure knows you."

"Three-quarters of the 'verse knows me. And David's not a threat to us." She took his hand and started walking towards the kitchen. "Come on, I'm hungry and you said you would show me the moo-shi marinade today."

Jayne let her tug him along; however he was mulling over the negative feeling that had arisen when River had called their client 'David' instead of 'Mr. Janek'. Seemed a mite too familiar-like, specially as, from the catwalk, he had seen the look on the young man's face when he had first caught sight of her.


	8. The New Guy

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch.8- The New Guy

River and Jayne were putting the finishing touches on the platter as Simon was setting the last plate on the mess hall table for dinner. She sprinkled a handful of chopped scallions over the protein-meat and smiled up at Jayne.

"Garnish, like the restaurant!" she explained proudly.

Jayne grinned back. "Well, okay, but just make sure that around here ya 'garnish' using whats we're gonna eat, we don't got no extras to get all fancy and such."

She nodded vigorously. Simon paused to watch them. It had taken him more than a half hour to set the table; he was playing his version of the not-too-subtle observation game again. Seemed he was doing that more and more lately. He was sure Jayne knew why he was hanging around, but for some reason the big man chose to not give the Doc a hard time about it. Seemed almost like he relished showing that he was capable of behaving properly. Kaylee had been trying to talk Simon into letting them be, reasoning with him that if Jayne did get out of hand that River could easily, if painfully, reprimand him. Simon was trying to not be an overbearing brother, but a volatile, whoring, mercenary isn't exactly what every man dreams his little sister will bring home. Course, with the life they were living, wasn't like they were going to be able to throw her a cotillion either.

Jayne felt Simon's eyes on him and took a small step back from River. He certainly wasn't afraid of the doctor, but his recent feelings for River had him thinking differently. Like he wanted to do this right. And try not to piss anybody off in the process. It wasn't so much that Jayne cared what the doctor thought, as he cared about what River thought, and the siblings were close. Simon's opinion would matter to her; therefore it mattered to Jayne. He sighed. All this bein' careful was exhaustin'.

"Will be worth it, I think," River whispered as she turned back to the sink to wash her hands. She glanced up to catch Jayne's eye and winked. Jayne couldn't help the slow grin that spread across his face.

"What's that, mei-mei?" Simon interrupted, oblivious that it wasn't a public conversation.

"The dinner is worthy of a tasty garnish, Simon," River covered. She moved into Jayne's side as he followed her over to wash his hands. He looked down at her as she bumped into his side, and squeaked. Side by side meant he was looking straight down at her, and the way her dress was loose at the top, meant straight down the top of her dress. As she leaned ever so slightly forward he caught a glimpse of lace. His eyebrow started to rise.

"Garnish," she whispered. "I'll try to remember to use the right ingredients." She pulled her hands out of the water and shook them off causing the lace to move a little. Jayne was shocked at her boldness. She was openly flirting with him, and in front of her brother no less! Maybe she wasn't as innocent as he and Mal had supposed. Or maybe she and Kaylee should be banned from those movies they kept downloading. There had been entirely too much giggling going on when those two got together.

"Ahem," Simon intervened. Jayne stepped back quickly, splashing water all over the front of Simon's vest. Why he still wore those things nobody had the faintest.

Jayne mumbled an apology and stepped back out of the way so Simon could get to the sink.

Kaylee chose that moment (thank goodness for the distraction! thought Jayne) to come bouncing into the mess followed by their new client.

"Simon, this here is Mr. Janek, he's going to be traveling with us for a while," Kaylee announced coyly. "Simon is our doctor. He's from the Core too."

"Just David, Doc," said Mr.Janek, extending his hand. "It's a real pleasure to meet you. Had the pleasure of meeting your sister earlier." He threw a smile towards River, who unhesitatingly smiled back. Jayne, standing off to the side, was not pleased.

"And this is Jayne," Kaylee continued, "our, ah…"

"Security?" David offered.

"Yeah," replied Jayne, stepping forward to shake David's hand, purposely towering overhead and almost crushing his fingers. David took a step back, rubbing his hand.

Simon, meanwhile, was having a choking fit at the fact that this man knew without being told that River was his sister. Which meant that he must know…

"Simon, it's okay," River reassured him while pushing him aside to stand next to David. "He has Mal's mind."

Both Simon and Jayne snorted. "I doubt that mei-mei," Simon started as Mal walked in.

"At some point I may just have you explain that comment, l'il one, but for now let's see what you cooked today. Mr. Janek, you can sit right over here."

"Please, no need for formalities, everyone. You can call me David, or actually I am more commonly known by my nickname, Cosmo."

Wash and Zoe had entered the mess as David was speaking. Wash went over to shake David's hand.

"Cosmo, huh? I'm Wash. Maybe together we can clean up this 'verse, eh?" Wash looked around to see who was laughing at his horrible joke, but there were only groans.

"What, don't you guys get it? Wash? Cosmo?" Wash looked pleadingly around for at least one supporter.

"Honey, sit down and eat. I think you just lost the right to speak at the dinner table tonight," Zoe chided her husband.

"So, Cosmo, where'd you get a nickname like that?" Mal asked.

Everyone settled around the table and started passing plates. "Well, actually, Mr. Universe was taken, so I had to go with Cosmo. We're both in the communications business after all."

Dead silence hit the table. Everyone froze and looked at each other, except River who kept right on eating. But before anyone could speak, David piped in again, looking around at each of them as he spoke, eyes finally coming to rest on River.

"Yes, I know who you all are. And I wouldn't have it any other way. You did what you had to do, so I'm sure you can appreciate my situation. Way things are right now, Parliament's not too keen on the education of anyone who might be considered disgruntled. Believe it or not, those simple computer components you're transporting for me are on the watch list for repossession at every legit port in the 'verse. They don't want anyone advancing beyond the point where they might be able to aim an abacus at someone in power."

Mal recovered first. "And you're just trying to do your humanitarian duty here and help out those less fortunate than yourself."

"Now, Captain, I wouldn't dream of trying to bullshit you. These people we're delivering to, they are paying customers. Wouldn't want to mess with the economics of the 'verse. You start giving away stuff for free and people ask questions. But if you simply redirect funds, well then everyone wins. For example, the proceeds of this sale are going to make me an investor in a shiny new manufacturing company these same people are starting up."

"Well, that's real nice a ya and all, but don'tcha need any money to live on?" Kaylee piped in. Simon looked at her carefully, tipped off by her tone. She had the same look on her face that she had had the first night they had all had dinner together. Except this time it wasn't directed at him. Huh.

Jayne had started smirking at Simon until he looked over to elbow River at Simon's jealousy, and saw that she was also staring and smiling at 'Cosmo'. Huh. Jayne looked down at his plate. Was there something in the food?

"Living expenses are not a problem for me," Cosmo started to explain.

"Thief," River stated matter-of-factly.

"River!" Kaylee tried to cover for her friend. "I'm sure she didn't mean it the way it sounded, she's always being all meta-phor-i-cal and such." She was beaming at David now.

"Actually, she's right, I am a thief." Forks and chopsticks were lowered. "I am a professional anti-encryptionist."

"A what?" Jayne asked. The only part of that he had understood was the word crypt- was this guy some sort of fancy high-priced funeral director?

"A hacker," Wash chipped in. "You're just making sound fancy."

"True enough," David laughed. "Alright then, a hacker it is. It's convenient for hotel reservations and restaurant credits. Also allows me freedom of movement. Well, actually, demands movement."

"Meaning?" Zoe prompted.

"Well, unlike Mr. U did, I don't have a home base. My operations are best kept moving."

"In other words, you're on the run," Mal said.

Cosmo smiled. "I like to think of myself as a multi-national corporation. Always moving towards a better future. It's useful in the communications industry to be one up on the competition."

"And who would that be?" Simon asked.

David looked down at his plate and smiled to himself. "I guess right now, that would be the Alliance. This is the best moo-shi I have ever had. You make this River?"


	9. Enter the Green Dragon

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch.9- Enter the Green Dragon

The remainder of dinner was spent with David 'Cosmo' Janek regaling the crew with stories of heists he had pulled. While the computer work was only interesting to Kaylee, Wash, and River, David tried to accommodate everyone by playing up the escape portion of his escapades.

Pretty soon Mal, Zoe, and David were discussing various strategies for roof-top escapes, while Kaylee, Wash, and River grilled him for details regarding the various systems he had broken into. Wash and Kaylee were especially amused by the tale of some after effects David had left behind in one particular banking system: upon the arrival of the president of the bank the next morning after a heist, his password caused all the lights to blink on and off, and set off all the fire sprinklers. River smiled over at Simon at that story, reminded of her own orchestration when they were younger.

But the only thing that Jayne was keeping tabs on was the interaction between River and David. Although outwardly it appeared as though Cosmo was trying to talk to everyone equally, anytime River piped up he would immediately swing his head around to either answer her or listen to her.

Simon also noticed. He remembered his earlier thoughts about not being able to hold a cotillion for River and that she might be settling for Jayne; but here it seemed that maybe the cotillion was coming to her. He decided that it couldn't hurt for River to explore her options. She and David were currently discussing his latest work.

"So you see, there are actually two locks in public key cryptography. They use asymmetric key encryption algorithms, in which both code keys must be kept secret yet not derivative. Also there are systems using mathematically related public and private keys."

River nodded excitedly. "Yes! That's what I tried to explain to Simon about our parent's security system, but he just wouldn't listen! He just kept trying to guess their password, when it would have been so much easier to just cross the wires and sneak the blonde in through the kitchen window!"

All eyes turned to Simon, who was trying to figure out how to biologically convert himself into a dust mite right then.

"Sneakin' in a blonde, huh?" Kaylee was grinning from ear to ear. Oh, this was good info.

"All right, Doc," Jayne leered from across the table. "Not so innocent as you make Kaylee think, eh?"

As the others joined in the heckling, Simon found an unabiding desire to divert attention from himself.

"Well, Jayne, I guess I don't have as much experience as you with the ladies," he lamely threw out.

Jayne clenched his fists, suddenly furious. First his girl, if she was that, had just spent the better part of dinner talking to some hundun just because he had some smarts, and now Simon was making him look like a piece of dirt on top of it.

"Simon, that wasn't nice," River interjected. She could feel the anger pouring off of Jayne, but what was confusing to her was that it was not all directed at Simon. In fact, it felt like Jayne might have been a little mad at her. She hadn't felt that in a long time and was confused by the feeling. Why would he be mad at her? What had she done wrong?

"Well I'm sure I'm the worst one here with women," said David, self-deprecatingly. "Being one of the 'verse's biggest geeks is great for getting free stuff, but being on the run and sociably inept does have its downfalls."

"No, no, not at all…" There was a chorus of disagreement around the table as mostly everyone tried to reassure David that he was just a fine person. Great, thought Jayne, guy calls himself a loser and everyone rushes to tell him he's great. I ever said that and they'd probably all agree with me. His sullenness grew.

Simon meanwhile, was trying to make nice with River. "You're right, mei-mei." He turned to Jayne. "I am sorry about the crack. It was inappropriate." Jayne just stared back suspiciously. Simon rarely had a civilized word for him; he must have something up his sleeve.

Kaylee was giggling at something Janek had said. Simon decided now was the time to push a little.

"I'm sorry David, River didn't hear that joke, could you repeat it for her?" He smiled his most wheedling-a-better-system-upgrade-from his parents smile.

"Sure thing, Sy. So River, that's a pretty name, there was this one system that I was taking a little more time than usual to get into, so my partner got a little impatient and decided to fire up the…"

Simon grimaced at the horrid nickname, but the prompt was working. At least it looked like it was. River was staring into David's eyes, murmuring 'aha's every minute or so. What Simon, or David, did not know was that River wasn't listening to a word that he was saying. She was too busy hearing angry thoughts shooting out from Jayne in the direction of her, Simon, and David.

If it was just Simon annoying Jayne then she would have ignored it. Those two still set each other off after all this time, although it had been less of late. And what Jayne had to be mad at David about she could not comprehend- he was a paying client and Jayne liked money, so what was the problem there?

The problem she was having though was that once again Jayne's walls were up and she could not readily define what he angry about, only that he was. When she reached out to him it was as if she was looking at a very tall dam that was spilling over at the top. So she was only getting a glimpse of emotion, all reason and explanation being held back behind the dam.

She realized that David was approaching the end of his story so she pulled back into herself to listen and laugh at the appropriate endpoint. Too bad she had been distracted, he was funny. And intelligent, it had been a while since she had been able to talk to anyone who could grasp the advanced concepts that came to her as easily as breathing.

"So nice to meet an intelligent young man way out here," Simon was saying. "Don't you think, River?"

"Huh?" She stared at Simon, startled. Her eyes grew large as she realized what Simon was doing. She quickly looked over to Jayne--- who wasn't there. He had gotten up and left. She hadn't even realized it. Go se.


	10. There’s a New Kid in Town

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch.10- There's a New Kid in Town

It wasn't hard to find Jayne- follow the sound of the clanking metal. River watched from the cargo bay entrance as he loaded up the bar and started pushing. She walked over to stand behind the bar. He ignored her.

"Talk to me." She figured she would start out civilized; more than likely this conversation was going to deteriorate rapidly.

Jayne tried to continue ignoring her but he couldn't help himself.

"Don't need to. Ya busy talkin' already." He wanted to add, _to another man,_ but didn't. He figured she could read it in his head if she'd a mind to.

But sometimes women do not need to be mind readers to know what's going on with their men. Sometimes, when they're irritated, they simply broadcast their displeasure through their actions. Jayne tended to reserve all his subtlety for jobs, not for the home front. River sighed. Time to play 'pacify the five year old'.

"Jayne," she started, "my talking to David doesn't mean anything. It's been a while since I've met anyone I could talk to about all the things I used to study, that's all."

Oops. Jayne practically tossed the barbell back into its rest, sat up straight and looked her in the eye.

"Well, that's real nice for ya. Finally meetin' someone who may be as smart as ya and can talk to ya 'bout all those things ya been missin'. Good for you." He stood up and walked away.

River was stunned. She tried to follow him but was stopped by a buffeting wall of emotion thrown back off him. A rolling shock wave of anger, jealousy, and sadly, depression. The last thing she 'heard' before the wall came back up was 'suppose it's good she met someone good enough for her'.

She wanted to run after him, but her head hurt from his lashing out. She heard footsteps enter the bay.

"Are you all right?" David asked softly from behind her. She didn't turn, she didn't want anyone seeing the tears in her eyes.

"Yes, thank you," she replied quietly. "I don't feel well, I think I'll go lie down."

David watched her leave the cargo bay, shaking his head. That girl was much too pretty and smart to be crying over some rough, crude, gorilla who probably didn't have the first clue how to treat a woman properly. Well maybe it was time someone did treat her properly.

_&&&&&&&_

_Two days later…_

Mal curled his hand around his glass and took another swig. "Don't know who he thinks he is anyways, he's even snottier than the Doc ever was," he declared to whoever would listen.

'Whoever', currently consisted of himself, Zoe, and, the apparently ex-snotty doctor himself. The three crewmates were having a couple and reviewing the last couple of days aboard their now routine free existence. Most of the complaints around that upheaval circled back to David 'Cosmo' Janek. Okay, not most, all of them did.

"She was having tea!" exclaimed Mal.

"Imagine that, Sir. Inara having tea." Zoe was trying to be stoic, but she was annoyed as well.

Inara had docked early the previous morning after Wash had swung by one of the system's wealthier outer moons to pick her up. Mal was miffed that not only did she look tanned and relaxed, but a new diamond necklace lay curled around the inside of her collarbone. And the 'Core-to-Core' connection that immediately struck up between her and David didn't help things either.

Zoe took another swig. "Meanwhile my man is falling in love with him!"

Mal's and Simon's heads whipped around. "Wha!" "Huh?"

Zoe ignored their shocked expressions and continued. "For two days it's been nothing but 'David thinks that wire configuration would work better if we did this' and 'David can increase our sensor array if we do that'. I'm sick of it!"

Mal waved an unsteady arm through the air. "Tha's nothin'. He was pinky wavin' the tea cup and ev'rything!"

Simon sighed. "Well, I'd be worried too with the amount of time he's been spending in the engine room supposedly working on 'efficiency', if he wasn't so taken with River." He reached for the bottle to refill his glass.

Mal and Zoe stopped short at that last comment to stare open-mouthed at Simon. In all the time they had known him, he had never once spoken in a positive manner about his sister and another man in the same sentence. This was definitely new.

And potentially dangerous. It wasn't any big secret that River and a certain large, volatile mercenary had been getting closer for some time now. While Mal wasn't sure it was the best idea, he knew Zoe had been keeping an eye on things, and as long as she kept making the effort to keep Mal from getting involved, he knew that everything was under control. He was content to let Zoe run the riot patrol on the boat, she was still intimidating to everyone, including Jayne. The best first mate ever. In the whole 'verse. Okay, maybe he had had one drink too many about now.

But he had to try and think straight, because if Simon was getting involved there could only be trouble on the horizon. Mal was sure that Jayne was tolerating Simon's presence of late in an effort to please River. Why would Simon butt in now and wreck the peace on the boat?

A very female giggle meandered in from the common area. Mal leaned back to glimpse River and David leaning over his laptop computer intently focused on something. He had heard lapses of conversations these past couple of days in which not one word had made sense. Way over his head, all of it. He looked back to Simon, who was leaning back and watching them as well, looking very pleased with himself.

Well, now it was crystal clear to Mal why he hadn't seen hide nor hair of his mercenary for nearly two days. He sighed and looked at Zoe. She looked over at the two kids huddled together on the couch, looked back at Mal, and shrugged.

"We gonna be putting out explosions?" Mal asked her in a low voice.

"Not that I can see sir," Zoe said, jerking her head in the direction of the opposite doorway.

Through which Jayne entered quietly, without saying a word. He went straight to the cabinets, grabbed a bag of protein snacks, went over to the fridge and grabbed a water, then turned to leave. As his head turned past the table Mal heard a muttered acknowledgement, "Cap'n, Zoe," then Jayne's eyes met Simon's. Jayne nodded at Simon who nodded back, like two friends that had an understanding. Jayne turned and left.

Mal was stupefied. "What was that?" he grilled Simon.

Simon shrugged. "Maybe Jayne just wants what's best for River, just like I do," he said. He looked back towards the common area. "And maybe he knows that maybe that's not him."


	11. A Tale of Two Egos

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 11- A Tale of Two Egos

Jayne popped open the hatch to his bunk and dropped down the ladder cradling the bag of snaps and the water bottle under the crook of his arm. As he turned around he was surprised by the sight of River. He jumped back, bumping his lower back on one of the ladder rungs and grunted. She looked up at him and smiled.

She was sitting on the edge of his bed with the small bedside table pulled over in front of her, her pistol dismantled and neatly laid out for cleaning. With a rag in one hand and the container of oil in the other, she jerked her head back in the direction of his gun rack.

"Who do you want to start with?" she asked.

"Now what do you think you're doin'?" blustered Jayne. "Aren't ya supposed to be in the common room figurin' out the math-e-matical secrets of the 'verse with yer little genius friend?" He knew he wasn't hallucinating. She had been in the common area not two minutes ago when he went around the long way to grab a snack.

"You went the long way around," she stated calmly. "I know we are in between jobs, but that is no excuse to not take care of our tools." She placed the gun oil down on the table and picked up the barrel to begin rubbing it down.

Jayne tried again. "You shouldn't be here. Ya wanna go clean yer weapon, go do it in the common area."

River was annoyingly calm. "We clean weapons together so you can relay the teaching stories. You were not in the common area. You are here. You have been here for two days. If I clean in the common area I am unable to hear you from here." She smiled at him, her logic infallible.

Jayne ran a hand through his hair, becoming more and more frustrated by the second. He took a deep breath and tried yet again.

"Look, ya shouldn't be here, in my bunk, it ain't appropriate," he spoke more softly, trying to get her see reason.

She put down the gun barrel and rag, carefully pushed back the table and stood up. She walked over to him slowly, never breaking eye contact. Placing her little hands flat on his chest, she rose up onto her toes and brushed her lips over the corner of his mouth.

"Thank you for the hair sticks," she whispered. Jayne swallowed loudly.

"Yer welcome," he mumbled. He shook his head. She had him acting like a teenager. "Look, aw, why are ya here? Shouldn't ya be downstairs keepin' whats-his-face company?"

River lowered back down onto the flats of her feet and scowled at him. "I thought you liked spending time with me. Now all of a sudden you're pushing me to spend time with some boy. Yes, I like talking about some things with him, but he's not he one I want to _be_ with." She looked up at him through her eyelashes.

This was quickly turning into a losing battle for Jayne. One that he didn't particularly feel like fighting in the first place. He liked her. A lot. And it seemed to him that she liked him too. But something kept niggling him in the back of his head and wouldn't let go.

It was easy to ignore all the reasons they shouldn't be together when Serenity was in the black. There was no one else, just the two of them, and it was enough. But it wasn't just Simon's wishes that Jayne was catering to; it was the fact that when Jayne saw River with David he saw the possibility that she could have everything she'd thought she lost. Something resembling a normal life, with someone who was worthy of her, someone who could keep up with her. And Jayne was painfully aware that he was not that someone.

It was during this introspection that Jayne didn't realize that he had let his wall down. River had her head cocked to the side, listening to his entire diatribe. As Jayne came to the decision that he had to let her go and be with the better man, she snorted. Loudly.

"Who do you think you are?" she demanded. Jayne took a step back, surprised by this new onslaught. "You do not get to decide for me who or what is best for me. I may have to spend every day arguing the point with Simon, but I am not going to start arguing with you about it. I decide what's best for me, dong ma?" She poked him hard in the chest with her index finger.

But Jayne was not ready to back down yet. "A practically illiterate, violent laborer is not good enough for a smart, pretty, young lady from the Core. 'Nough said." He seemed to think the discussion was over.

Jayne may have had a lot of experience with women, but he did not have a lot of experience with relationships. If he had, he would have realized that there was no way he was getting the last word. Not in this woman's 'verse.

River leaned back on one long leg, placed her hands on her hips, and looked at him with raised eyebrows. "That's nice dear; get the nice, young, lady from the Core a nice, young man from the Core. Now what do you recommend for slightly crazy, government altered psychic assassin living in the black? Me, I think a large, muscled, sharp-shootin' mercenary type will do just fine." She kept one eyebrow raised as she continued to stare him down.

She had expected Jayne to start yelling and a full blown fight to ensue: it always did when they were together and she disagreed with him on any particular point. Sometimes she didn't exactly disagree with him, but annoyed him because it amused her. By now she knew all his pressure points and knew how to set him off with a single statement. The phrase 'crazy, government altered psychic assassin' usually got her snapped at, then lectured about how since her brother had rescued her and she was better, it was up to her to decide what she wanted to make of her life, and to not let others decide for her.

But maybe this time he was reading her mind, because he didn't yell. Instead, he started to laugh. Slow and low, then rolling into a big, deep belly laugh. He closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her. She sighed and snuggled into him. Now this felt right.

"Girl, what am I gonna do with you?" Jayne laughed into her hair.

"I can think of a few things," she mumbled into his chest.

He leaned back so he could look into her eyes and smirked. "Your brother isn't going to like this," he said.

"Too bad. _My_ decision, remember?"

Jayne nodded. "Okay, boss." She giggled as he grasped her chin with one hand and ran his fingers around to underneath the back of her hair with the other. She sighed happily as he leaned in.

A loud BOOM! reverberated throughout the ship, throwing Jayne forward, his lips completely missing River's. He groaned.

"Always with the interruptions!"


	12. The Pre Game Show

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch.12- The Pre-Game Show

Mal was running down the hall toward the bridge when Jayne came up through his bunk hatch loaded with weaponry. "Right," Mal nodded his approval, "hold that thought." He continued on to the bridge. "Wash, what the hell is goin' on?!"

Simon entered the hall just in time to see River climb up out of Jayne's bunk. He scowled at Jayne, who merely shrugged, nodded to River, and said, "talk to her, Doc. She's the boss." River beamed up at him, slipped her arm through his, and arm in arm and weapons they sauntered on down the hall to the bridge.

"What the hell is going on?!" Mal yelled at Wash again.

"Well, Captain, it looks like we're being shot at," Wash replied calmly.

"Well what the hell for?!"

"Hold on Captain, I'll just pull over to the side of the road and ask them."

"Ask who?! Who's shootin'?!"

Zoe placed her hand gently on Mal's arm. "Please step over to the side and let my man fly the ship, Captain." Mal was whipping his head around, eyes bulging.

"Wash, honey, can we determine who is shooting at us?"

"Well, lamby-toes, they aren't exactly shooting at us so much as over us. It's that whole 'across-the-bow' sort of thing."

The vid screen started beeping, then audio came through. "This is the police cruiser _Hermes_. You have 5 seconds to release control and prepare for boarding."

"What the hell is going on?!" Mal screamed again.

"I think you've exhausted that phrase, Sir," Zoe replied.

"Well that's funny," Wash said, looking closer at one of his sensors. "Their transponder is relaying a funny frequency."

"Permission to board the bridge, Captain?" No one had noticed Cosmo appear in the doorway. "I think I may be able to be of some help in identifying that signal if I can take a closer look at it."

Mal started to make his 'no' face, but Wash interceded. "Please, Captain, it can't hurt to have a second set of eyes."

Mal nodded his consent. Cosmo stepped through the bridge doorway just as another blast ripped across the starboard side. Everybody was thrown. River found herself up against the wall with a face full of David.

"Sorry," he smiled, "didn't mean to fall into you." He stood back up and offered his hand to help River stand up straight when he heard a growl right behind him. He withdrew his proffered hand and turned around. Jayne was standing over him with a feral gleam in his eye, like David was trying to steal his ball on the playground. David smiled up at Jayne and turned back to Wash and Mal.

"Let's see what we have here." He sauntered over to the console. He would help the crew out for right now and get back to River later. A little civilized conversation covering recent scientific developments, art, and music, maybe a little of the '63 Rothschild he had hidden away… there was no way he didn't have it over Serenity's 'security'. But for now back to business.

He looked down at the screen and frowned. "Well that's funny."

"That's what I said! Isn't that what I said honey?"

"Yes, Dear. What do you think?" This last was directed at Cosmo, who was scrunching his forehead and frowning.

"Well, it looks like it's supposed to be a police cruiser, only, well, the only way to explain this is that it looks a little crooked. Like they want you to think they're a police cruiser, only that maybe they're not, only they are."

"Huh?" Mal resisted the urge to scratch his head. Everyone else looked confused as well.

"I think they're legit, Captain," Cosmo turned to face him. "Only they want people to think that maybe they're not, so maybe you get cocky, and then they get to _really_ enforce the law."

"You mean like rough us up when we question their legitimacy?" Wash questioned.

"Exactly," replied Cosmo. "Captain, I think you should play it safe with these guys."

Mal frowned. The last thing he wanted was to be boarded, even with the Tam warrants no longer in effect. Alliance were the sort, especially way out here, to find some infraction just to assuage boredom. Like a cow town with one speed limit sign. Go se.

By now the rest of the crew had crowded either inside the bridge or around the doorway.

"All right, River, Simon, suit up and stand by to make yourselves scarce. Jayne, weapon down a little- we don't want to look antsy. And help those two with their suits. Kaylee, I want you in the engine room looking busy. Inara, if you would please wait in your shuttle until we sort this out- "

"Mal, I may be able to be of some help here. Respectability, remember?" Inara prodded him gently, aware that he had actually _asked_ her to wait in her shuttle instead of ordering her.

Mal started to tense, then Zoe elbowed him. Hard.

"Okay, ah, you're with us. Zoe, let's go meet them. Wash, signal back that we're pulling over, and try not to make any jokes, dong ma?"

"Got it," Wash answered. "You know, I don't make jokes about everything…" he muttered.

"Save it for later, okay husband?" ordered Zoe, taking the sting out by wrapping her arms around her husband for a quick hug and kiss.

David spoke up. "Ah, Captain, I think I'll just wait in the passenger quarters until you gentlemen have completed your business." He disappeared quickly down the hall. River felt a flicker of something shoot off of him as he turned the corner- was that fear?

Jayne snorted. "That little 'puter he's got ain't gonna help now." He hoisted his semi onto his shoulder.

River smiled up at him. "No killing the nice police officers until after Inara and the Captain talk to them, right dear?"

Everyone stared at Jayne in shock, expecting him to blow up at the way she had just spoken to him. But again that day Jayne surprised them.

"Okay, okay, I'll give Inara a minute or two before I start blowin' holes in people, okay?" He grinned at her mischievously.

They left the bridge, River laying a hand on his arm as he paused to let her exit the doorway before him.

Mal looked around, his face scrunched up in confusion. "I thought they were off? Are they on again?"

Zoe looked concernedly after the pair walking arm in arm down the corridor. "Apparently so, Sir."

Mal shook his head. "I hope they don't suddenly become 'off' again while those feds are in my hold. Could get messy."


	13. The Pirates of Penzance

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 13- The Pirates of Penzance

The airlock hissed open and large man in a long gray coat stalked into the bay followed by two others flanking him on either side.

"Well, Captain, took you long enough to stand down. Watcha hiding?" The man grinned widely as he extracted a cigar from his pocket, waved it in front of his nose with a flourish, then waved it at Mal. "I'm Lieutenant Trace. Nice little old cargo ship you got here. So what's on the menu for today?"

Mal stepped forward, flanked by Zoe. Jayne stood offsides, Inara near him. Mal had several hands to play here, and he had them all lined up.

"Transporting cargo today, same as usual. Mind telling what's the hurry with the pullover?"

"Oh, certainly, certainly," the man replied easily, a little too confident for Mal's taste. "We're just doing some routine checks for contraband. Oh, sorry about the 'across the bow' stuff, my pilot gets a little antsy sometimes, always thinks everyone's running for some reason." He laughed lightly and stepped forward, gesturing to the crates over to the side. Mal had had them pulled out in plain view.

"Don't mind if I take a look, now do you?" Without waiting for Mal's answer, he held his hand out for the crowbar one of his flunkies slapped into his outstretched palm. "So, where's the customs paperwork for this stuff?"

Inara stepped forward. "Right here Lieutenant." She held some official looking forms in her outstretched hands that Mal had never seen before.

Lieutenant Trace stepped up to Inara and bowed low. "A Companion." He glanced over at Mal. "I see you travel with fine company, although why she would deign to be on a cargo ship is a little beyond me." He stared back at Inara questioningly.

Inara never flinched. "I rent a shuttle from the good Captain in a business arrangement. In return, I get to broaden my client base." Mal did flinch at that, even though Inara hadn't taken clients since before the Miranda incident.

The lieutenant took the papers from Inara's proffered hand and barely glanced at them. "So am I to assume that the contents of these crates are yours?" His smile was ear to ear even as it did not reach his eyes.

"Yes, I'm transferring some older computers between training houses," she answered smoothly. "Would you care to take a look?" she challenged.

The officer handed the paperwork back to Inara and stepped back. "No, I'm sure everything is in order, and we wouldn't want to unnecessarily offend the Guild, now would we?"

He began to pace across the bay, turning suddenly on one heel to gaze back at Inara. "I wonder," he continued, "you wouldn't have happened to come across another Core citizen like yourself lately? A man of high regards in the technical community, a man who might have need of services such as yours, a Mr. Janek? David Janek?"

Inara shook her head unhesitatingly. "No, I'm sorry, that name doesn't ring a bell."

He looked over at Mal, who shrugged. "Never heard of 'im, sorry." Zoe shrugged noncommittally.

A third flunky entered the cargo bay from the cruiser and stepped up to the Lieutenant to hand him a small note. Lt. Trace scanned it and made a face. "Funny, you seem to be acquainted with more Core folk than one would normally expect for a simple Rim cargo transporter, Captain Reynolds." He glared at Mal. "Sure you've never heard of a David Janek? Maybe a company called Setec Astronomy?"

Mal had no need to fake his confusion now. "Sorry, Lt. Trace, never heard of any, what is it, See-tek Astronomy?"

The lieutenant grunted, not convinced. He glanced over at Jayne and nodded. "Hi there, how ya doin'?" Jayne grunted, stood up taller and shifted his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other.

"Yeah," said Trace. He looked back at Mal. "Well, seems like everything's in order here. You all be safe out here in the black, you never know where or when criminals could pop up and offend nice folk like yourselves." He tipped a fake, overdone salute at Mal and Zoe, turned on his heel, and sauntered out. As he passed by the deputy who had brought him the note he muttered under his breath.

"All set?"

"Yes, Sir, we got 'em."

A collective sigh was heard as Zoe walked over to the side console and punched the door shut. She placed a hand on her holster and turned to Mal.

"Want to have a little chat with our guest?"

Mal snorted. "You bet your ass I do. Jayne, go check on River and Simon, Zoe, please invite our guest down to the mess for a little chat."

A chorus of determined 'yes, Sirs' came from Jayne and Zoe as they left the cargo bay. Mal walked over to Inara.

"Thank you," he stated simply, looking her right in the eye. "I appreciate your help there." He smiled down at her.

Inara grinned saucily. "Oh, my, I do believe I won't know what to do with you with your newly acquired manners. Did you get them on sale back in that last marketplace we stopped in?" Her smile was making him dizzy. He laughed at her sarcasm.

"Listen, woman, I'm tryin'. Don't I at least get a cookie or something?"

But before he finished speaking, Inara leaned up and kissed his cheek. Mal grinned, grabbed her around the waist, and sauntered toward the mess.

"Well, that was alright for now, but I'm still gonna be wanting that cookie woman, so you better get busy in that there kitchen. Ow!" he exclaimed, her playful smack resounding off the cargo bay walls.

"You know, though," he stopped, suddenly thoughtful. "They didn't seem like legit cops."

Inara laughed. "Well, it's not like we're 'legit' cargo transporters either!"

&&&&&&&

Jayne was just about to turn the corner to where River and Simon were waiting below the roof hatch with their E.V.A. suits on when he heard his name mentioned. He hesitated, eavesdropping. He knew River wouldn't appreciate it, hell, she probably knew he was right there, but he wanted to get the lay of the land regarding Simon and just how much of a fuss he was going to put up over him and River's growing relationship.

"Look, all I'm saying is that he seems like a nice boy that you can have an intelligent conversation with, just give him a chance. There is nothing wrong with exploring your options."

"Simon, this is not a competition or a cotillion. David is a perfectly nice boy, yes. He's smart, and funny, and probably wealthy. But how can you think he's so much better than Jayne? David is a thief. Jayne works for thieves. What's the difference? Because you think Jayne's undereducated and crude?

"Jayne keeps me safe. He teaches me how to get along in the world I live in now, not a fairytale Core world that we'll never fit into again. He gives me cooking lessons, then buys me dinner. He tells me stories about his mother's garden when I'm not feeling well. He tells me silly jokes and makes me feel like a real girl, one who makes him nervous.

"David can write me an algorithm for a blinking smiley face. He can discuss large number theory and astrophysics. He is good at hiding and running. Do you really think he could handle who I can become? Jayne has seen me at my worst and yet today he wants me for himself.

"Most importantly- he listens to me. I need you to listen to me now, Simon. I want to pursue this thing, whatever it is, with Jayne. And I need you to let me." River stared into her big brother's eyes imploringly. He sighed.

"Mei-mei, I do want those things for you. To be safe and happy. And I know that you and Jayne are close. I just didn't want it to be because you didn't have the chance to meet anyone else and he was the only unattached man in your life."

"We didn't meet under the best of circumstances, Simon. But I think we have gone through enough that if we find happiness with each other, then I want you to be happy for me." She decided to soften this for her brother with a little humor. "Besides, you know I can kick his butt if he gets out of line." She smiled brilliantly at him, the smile she knew he couldn't resist. He looked serious for a moment more, then buckled.

"Such a brat. You always get whatever you want. Fine, I'll butt out, but please be careful."

"I will, but you need to remember that several times now Mal has gotten shot because Jayne was paying attention to me on a job and not him."

Simon smiled. "Hmm, I guess he has been proving himself, hasn't he?"


	14. Shades of Gray

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 14- Shades of Gray

Mal clomped onto the bridge. "Tell me the good news, Wash."

Wash grimaced. "Well they appear to be moving off. I take it went well?"

It was Mal's turn to grimace. "Too easy. I expect they won't be moving too far off."

"Depends what the range is on this." Wash pointed to a blinking red light on the console. "I think they tagged us."

Mal frowned. "Well, we can't rip it off without raising their suspicions even more that something's going on."

"What's going on? What were they looking for?"

"I don't know, but I aim to find out. Get us back on course."

Mal left the bridge and proceeded down to the mess. Upon entering, he found Zoe standing inside the doorway with her arms crossed and Jayne sitting at the kitchen table, testing a nine inch blade along his thumb. David Janek sat across from him, his eyes large and glued to the knife.

Mal smiled. Trust Jayne to prep someone properly for an interrogation. Mal wasn't planning on hurting David, but a little fear could be a proper sort of motivator.

"So, how's about we have us a little chat?" Mal began.

David looked up at him and seemed to regain some confidence. "Captain, I'm sure I don't know what this is about, but I think threatening your passengers is in poor taste."

Mal glanced at Jayne. "Jayne, did you threaten Mr. Janek?"

Jayne paused, inspecting the blade edge. "Nope. Haven't said a word." He resumed sliding his thumb up the knife, testing its edge. He never once lifted his eyes up.

David shifted nervously in his chair. "Now look,…"

"No, now you look," demanded Mal. "We got some crates that may not be what they appear to be, some feds asking questions about said crates, and some questions about you as well. Start talking, young man."

"I assure you, Captain, those computer crates are nothing more than innocent, outdated computer components. Tools necessary to assure updating the quality of life on a Rim planet."

"And I assure you, young man, that that there large man with the long cutting implement is my tool necessary to assuring the quality of life on this here ship. What _aren't _you telling us? And before you begin tryin' to put me off again, why don't you tell me about Setec Astronomy?"

Unbelievably, David smiled. Mal was curious that that hadn't caught him off guard. "Captain Reynolds, Setec Astronomy is the incorporated front that I and my colleagues use in order to move a little more freely amongst places that are a little Alliance heavy." He stood up. "I would be happy to open any crate you pick and prove to you that what I say is true." He gestured towards Jayne. "I'm sure your security would be happy to help you by prying open the wooden crate with his sharp tool."

Jayne looked up, startled. "No way ya openin' up some friggin' crate with my good knife. Sure we got a crowbar 'round here somewhere." He rose to presumably find it, but Mal stayed him with a wave.

"Nah, we're all set here for now." David, Jayne, and Zoe looked at him in surprise. "Yeah, if you'll excuse us Mr. Janek, I need to speak to my crew for a moment."

David nodded, glancing at Zoe and the still knife-waving Jayne. He moved out from behind the table and disappeared out through the door of the mess. Jayne turned to Mal.

"Well, I see we're gonna need to have us some lessons about, oh, I don't know, Interrogation 101?!"

Mal looked thoughtful. Zoe stepped up. "Sir, what are you thinking?"

Mal turned towards her. "Don't you think it's funny that we get stopped by the cops looking for this Cosmo guy, and our own little resident reader hasn't ever said anything to us 'bout him?"

Jayne took a step. "You ain't sayin' she's been withholdin' info from us?"

"No," Mal said, "I think she would tell us if he was a danger, but the only thing she ever said to me 'bout him was that he 'had my mind'. Don't rightly know what that was about."

"Maybe it's about time we asked her, Sir," Zoe said.

"Reckon' your right." Mal went to turn towards the com to call River, but she suddenly appeared in the doorway. She stepped through, smiling brilliantly at Jayne before turning to the Captain.

"Did you have fun scaring the little boy, dear?" she asked Jayne.

"Yeah, but Mal wouldn't let me…hey, are you makin' fun of me?!"

River patted him on the arm. "Of course not." She turned to the Captain.

"You were looking for me?"

"Well, yeah, was about to, you reading me?"

"No, I deduced that two point five minutes after the interrogation was scheduled to end you would want to ask me what I meant when I said that David had the same mind as you." Jayne reflexively growled as River said Janek's name. She patted his arm again.

"Well, my fine little witch, you deduced correctly. So what gives?"

She leaned in and waved her arms in a gathering motion so that Zoe and Mal stepped closer to Jayne and her. "He was young and smart like me, and they gave him a job. And now he's brown!" She jumped back and giggled, as if her statement had explained everything. Except maybe it did.

As Mal's face started to scrunch up in frustration, Zoe interceded. "I think I got this one, Sir. River, honey, you mean that David got a job working for the Alliance when he was younger?"

River nodded vigorously, a huge smile plastered on her face.

Zoe continued. "And they screwed him over?"

River continued to nod, more slowly, sadness crossing her face.

"And now he's somehow involved with the Independents?"

River nodded vigorously again, smile back on.

"There is no Independent movement," Mal said with a flat face. He moved to leave the mess. "Zoe, Jayne, you keep an eye on him."

"I understand," River said. "You're not ready yet."

Mal glared at her, then stomped out. Jayne looked to River. "What was that about? Inna-pendents startin' up again?" A frown crossed his face. "And this Janek's one 'a them?"

But before River could answer, Zoe spoke up. "I don't know about David, but Monty mentioned rumors when we ran into him a couple months back." She shook her head, then made to follow Mal. She looked back to River.

"You're sure he's okay, little one?"

River smiled and nodded encouragingly. "Jayne should not be beating on him just yet." She grinned up at him. Zoe nodded and left. Jayne grunted.

"He keeps makin' googly eyes at ya, and I'ma gonna have to beat on 'im whether or not he's one a Mal's good guys." He tried to glare at her, but she just laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"There's no one here," she whispered conspiratorially. She started to rise up on her tiptoes and purse her lips, but Jayne hesitated.

"Yeah, but someone'll walk in on us, or the ship'll get shot at, or somethin's gonna happen…" He was silenced in voice and thought as her lips touched his. After pressing with closed lips for a couple seconds he lifted his eyes to glance around the room.

"Well, mmm, maybe I'll catch a break this time…" he mumbled as he felt her lips open against his.

And no one interrupted them for a good ten minutes.


	15. Secrets & Spies & To Do Lists

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 15- Secrets & Spies & To-Do Lists

Jayne was closely inspecting the inside of River's mouth with his tongue when Mal walked into the mess.

"Gah! I can't be seein' that!" He threw his arm up over his eyes. He waited a second and started to peek under his arm, only to find that the pair hadn't even paused in their oral tour of each other's mouths. "Hello! Stop that now! Just cause I'm not buttin' in doesn't mean I have to watch it!"

River pulled back, breathing heavily. "He has been remarkably well-behaved about our growing closeness. Perhaps we shouldn't taunt him so."

"Yeah, well, mebbe he'd feel better if he went and got hisself a little 'spection of 'Nara's molars," Jayne smirked.

River smacked him lightly on the arm. "You're naughty," she giggled.

"Oh, Baby, you don't even know…"

"Enough!" Mal yelled. "Jayne, go away. I need to talk to River for a minute." Jayne's head snapped up at that and he growled.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna make off with your woman, just need to discuss some readin' business," Mal explained.

Jayne still didn't look pleased, but he complied. He squeezed River's arm lightly.

"I'll see ya later?" She nodded, beaming up at him.

"I'm goin' to go lift," he told her, looking at the Captain, "I'll be nearby in case you need me." He stomped out.

Mal waited until he thought that Jayne was far enough away. "Okay, little one, I got a mission for you." He looked at her seriously. "I need you to continue being friendly-like with this Janek guy- we need more information, need to know what we're dealing with here. I think maybe we can accomplish that without putting the Jayne-hurt on anyone, seeing as how Davy's got a little crush on ya."

River looked thoughtful. "Jayne isn't going to like this. But I tried reading Cosmo when he first came on board to make sure he was safe for my family, and I only could read generalities on him, no details."

"Then all the more reason why we need to go to a phase two to get control of this situation," Mal said. "Right now I got 'a Alliance ship floating out there watchin' their beacon they tagged on us. We can't remove it without raisin' suspicion, and I don't even know what we'd be raisin' suspicion about.

"And we need to keep this little op quiet for it to be successful. Kaylee can't keep a secret worth a hill o'beans and Simon's not much better. I don't know if I'm gonna even tell Zo' what we're doin'; that husband a hers ain't much better than 'Lee."

"And Jayne?" River asked carefully. "I can tell Jayne right? Otherwise David will be hurting sooner rather than later." She tried her pretty-please eyes on her Captain.

"Sorry, no way. As jealous and overprotective as that man is of his belongings, I can't imagine he's not gonna interfere. I'll talk to Jayne, get him to back off a bit. We land in a couple of days, I'll just encourage him to wait fer ya. Meanwhile, with such little time left, you need to get started right away. You should probably start with giving Davy sympathy over my little 'interrogation'." Mal smirked.

"Yes, because that was so terrifying," taunted River. "Okay, but first I'll need to change."

"Alright, I want reports regular-like, dong ma?"

"Yes, Captain."

&&&&&&&

River walked into the cargo bay as Jayne was finishing putting away the crates they had pulled out for the fed's inspection. She paused, watching him sadly for a moment- he was going to be hurt by what the Captain had asked her to do, but she silently promised Jayne that she would make it up to him. He saw her and grinned.

"Hey, Babe, what's up? What's the big captain-y secret?" He stepped up close, wrapping his arms around her and looking down into her face. River swallowed.

"Can't tell." Jayne frowned and started to say something but she couldn't let him. "I was given a mission, and I need you to trust me." She looked at him solemnly.

Jayne was instantly concerned. The Captain had given River a job without him? That had never happened before, they were partners, they had been working jobs together for over a year. But maybe this was a test, maybe the Captain wanted to see for himself outside of Jayne's reports that she really was better. She smiled and started nodding.

"Yes, it's a test of sorts," she said. "Maybe for both of us." She looked serious again. "Jayne, I need you to let me do this. To prove to the Captain that I really am better, once and for all." It wasn't a total fib, just a little twist on the truth, and she knew it would make him feel better, even if only momentarily.

"Okay," he answered her seriously. He knew how much she looked to Mal as a father figure and that it mattered to her what he thought of her. Hell, it mattered to him what Mal thought of him, tho' he'd never admit it out loud.

He changed tacks; he wanted to own up to what he had done earlier, especially before she found out by accident.

"Listen," he started, "I gotta confession to make." He grimaced slightly, he suddenly realized that he wasn't sure how she was going to take this.

"You've pulled down and thrown away all the girly pictures from your bunk wall?" she asked facetiously.

He stopped; he had been focused and not expecting the retort. He smiled. "Ah, well, okay, that's on the To-Do List, fer sure." He grinned.

River raised an eyebrow. "How about we take it off the 'To-Do' list and actually do it?"

Jayne coughed and lowered his eyes in an appropriately cowering manner. "Yes, ma'am." He looked up under his eyelashes and gave her a wink. She punched him playfully and wrapped her arms around his mid-section.

"Listen, I's got ta tell ya this. I was coming to get ya and yer brother earlier when them feds left, and I heard what ya said to Simon. Bout us." He looked at her, serious again. "I'm sorry for eaves-droppin', but I kinda wanted to know what Simon was gonna say when ya told him that ya picked me over that floozy Core-boy."

She nodded, and then corrected him. "I didn't pick you over him, Jayne, I pick you for you long before then. But don't worry, Simon is okay with us. His main concern will always be for me, he just wants to make sure that I am safe and happy." She leaned her head against his abdomen and sighed happily.

"Well, that's the way he should be, all concerned 'bout ya, he's yer big brother after all. I know if I had a sister and she brought home someone like me, well, I'da killed 'im." He ran a hand softly down the back of her hair.

"But I gots just one question. I heard that list of stuff ya tol' Simon I do fer ya- well I just gotta say, that was a big list and, I don't know, but ya seem like an awful demandin' woman all of a sudden…"

He laughed as her hand met his side in a resounding thwack! that echoed though the cargo bay.


	16. Optical Illusions

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 16- Optical Illusions

Jayne walked into the mess the next morning rubbing his stomach and making a beeline for the stove. He hadn't realized that smooching made a man so hungry. He scooped a big pile of protein mush oatmeal into a bowl and turned to go sit down at the table. The mouthful he had been scooping up fell back into the bowl with a squishy plop.

There, sitting closely next to each other at the mess table, was his girl and David. Together. Sitting. Eating breakfast. Together. And there was giggling, too. What the hell?!

River could feel the anger and hurt surge off of Jayne. She sighed; obviously the Captain hadn't talked to him like he said he would. She had to diffuse this quickly.

"Good morning, Jayne," she smiled sunnily at him. Jayne just stared at her in shock. David had been so involved in showing River something on his laptop that he hadn't noticed Jayne enter until just then. He looked up at the large mercenary and gulped. He tried to inconspicuously slide away from River. He did like her, but that little knife viewing the previous day had him decide to watch his hide and maybe try for a different girl. One who was not on this ship. Preferably far away from this ship.

David wasn't stupid. He had realized shortly after meeting everyone that there was the beginning of a close relationship between the genius and the boat's mercenary. But she was pretty and smart, and she had smiled at him. He hadn't had a lot of girls do that, historically speaking. So maybe he had gotten a little bit cocky and thought that the uneducated Rim-worlder wasn't good enough for her.

So he had given it a go. She had seemed to be excited to spend time with him at first, in turns eagerly chatting with and then grilling him on his knowledge. He had thought he had a shot. Until last night.

He had waited until everyone was settled in for the evening, then snuck through the hall to the bay to check on his 'cargo'. As he was about to turn the corner through the doorway he heard voices. And giggling. Female and _male_ giggling. Huh.

David peered around the corner and froze. There, in the corner of the bay, sitting on top of one of _his_ crates, was Jayne, River in his lap. They were alternately whispering, giggling, and sucking face. And by the little moans she made while they were kissing, it appeared she wasn't exactly adverse to the situation.

After realizing what he was seeing he turned around and went back to his room, disappointed. He really did like her, but he knew he couldn't exactly fight Jayne for her, and why bother as it appeared that he already had her. Well, it was better this way, he reasoned, they lived together on the same ship, and he was just passing through. Better for her to have someone who was going to be there for her instead of always on the run.

And then, this morning, his world had turned on its head again. He had gone to the mess early to grab some breakfast and then retreat back to his room alone. River was already in there, waiting with two bowls in her hand.

"Hungry?" she said, her bright smile nearly blinding him.

"Huh?" was the best he could manage.

She had taken over the conversation, ushering him to the table, placing one of the bowls in front of him and sitting down right next to him. He had been utterly confused. He knew he had not been hallucinating last night, he absolutely had seen her with Jayne.

And now there was a large, angry, armed man in front of him, looking like he was going to rip David's arms off and use them for boomerang practice. David looked to River, then to Jayne, then to the table. He tried to surreptitiously slide away from her, but she kept sliding back towards him. He closed his eyes and swallowed.

River saw David close his eyes in fear and took that moment to signal Jayne. Her eyebrows rose up and she wiggled her fingers, _I'm working._

Jayne's eyebrows rose even higher in response. He looked at David, who looked like he was trying to self-combust, and then back to River. He shook his head once, sadly, then grunted and stomped out. River sighed.

David opened one eye. "I'm alive?"

River giggled and slid closer to him. "Of course, silly. Now what were you saying about the inverse coding of asymmetric cryptographic algorithms?"

&&&&&&&

Mal heard his hired gun stomping toward the bridge long before he saw him. He had taken the early shift so he could catch the burly merc before breakfast, but he must have dozed off and missed him, if one could judge these things by the decibel level of the stomping.

"Dammit, Mal, what the hell were you thinking! She's not a bloody whore!" Jayne exploded onto the bridge. "And I'll be dammed if she's gonna be treated like one. I'ma puttin' a stop to this l'il charade right now!" He made as if to turn and stomp back out. Mal put a hand on his arm.

Jayne stopped and glared at him. "If'n ya wanted to know if ya could trust her, ya should'a asked me," he growled. "I'd trust her with my life, and I'm the one she's took out twice now. Did'ya think I'd lie to ya about how she's doin'?"

Mal paused, realizing where Jayne was coming from. River hadn't broken her promise to not tell- but Jayne had guessed what her job was, a job without him for the first time.

"Jayne, I'm not testing her. I trust her too. This is a legitimate assignment- I need to know what's going on around here. There's more to this Cosmo guy than we know, and I need answers as to why those feds tagged us and are tailing right now."

This stopped Jayne in his tracks. "We're bein' tracked?"

"Yeah. And we can't go acting like we know, when we don't know."

"Huh?"

"We can't rip off the tag or they'll suspect us of knowing what's going on and we don't know anything right now."

"Well, hell, I could'a tol ya that." Jayne ran a hand over his face. "I still don't like the idea of ya usin' Riv to seduce the l'il puke. Can't I just go beat it out of him?"

"I'm not asking her to do any such thing, Jayne. What do you take me for, a pimp? Look, the little 'puke' obviously has a crush on her, and if she can get him to talk, so much the easier-peasier. I can't have you beating on him when we don't even know who he really is. I'm fairly sure that if he even entertained the thought of acting inappropriately with her that she can twist him into submission."

Jayne grimaced at that oh-so-personal memory. Strong wrists on that girl fer sure. "All right fer now, but I'ma gonna keep an eye on them two," he stated fiercely.

Mal nodded. "Wouldn't expect anything less my friend." He smiled at the bigger man, noting that Jayne was really keeping his temper in check these days, no doubt that was River's influence.

&&&&&&&

Zoe entered the mess to grab an afternoon snack for her husband who was currently attached to the bridge chair and an intense game of 'herbivores versus carnivores'. The carnivores usually won, but the herbivores were doing a better than average job of hiding this afternoon. She paused at the sight before her.

At the mess table was one very quiet mercenary stripping and polishing gun parts- alone. For the past year he and River had been doing that task together, but right now she was nowhere to be seen. And then Zoe heard the low giggling and murmuring.

She stepped further into the room until she could see into the common area and stopped, shocked. There was River, curled up on the couch next to David, his computer stretched between their two laps. And here was Jayne, quietly watching them in his peripheral vision from the mess.

Zoe was most definitely confused. She had been sure that River and Jayne had finally had the same talk that had made her and Wash a couple forever. But here they were, apart again. And the stranger piece was that Jayne wasn't in the middle of dissecting David.

She looked up to see Mal standing in the opposite doorway staring at her. When he caught her eye he slowly shook his head. She was not to interfere. She glanced at the silent mercenary one more time before grabbing the snack bag and heading out.

Jayne had not been able to even acknowledge Zoe's presence. He was afraid that if he met her eyes, she would see the shiny glint in the tough man's eyes. He knew this was supposed to be just another job, but it tore him up that River should be spending time with someone other than him. Someone who, Jayne had to admit again to himself, was probably better for her in the long run.


	17. Workin’ For a Livin’ Redux

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 17- Workin' For a Livin'- Redux

"I'm confused," Simon said, walking into the cargo bay towards the bench where Jayne was lifting too much weight.

"What's that, Doc?" Jayne grunted out.

Simon grabbed the middle of the bar and helped Jayne lift it back onto the rack.

"Thanks," muttered Jayne, "I'm impressed ya have it in ya."

Simon smiled. "I've had a little practice restraining patients in the past, I guess it keeps me a little in shape."

Jayne grunted and started lifting again. "If ya say so."

Simon shook his head at the amount of weight the older man was pushing. "You didn't answer my question."

Jayne grunted again. "Didn't hear one."

"I said that I was confused. My sister recently gave me the 'butt out of my romance with Jayne' lecture, and now she's in the mess serving David cookies."

Simon didn't miss the pained look that quickly crossed the man's face at that. "Don' know, Doc. Woman's got the right to make her own decisions." He knew he sounded ridiculous, but he knew Mal didn't want anyone else knowing what was going on- Simon was a terrible liar. River had to get some information out of David before the others could know the truth.

Jayne understood the Captain's reasons for this operation, but he didn't have to like it. He was used to things being simple, and he was used to being selfish. Simple had left via the airlock the day he realized that his partner looked really hot when she was sighting down a rifle scope, and selfish had to be put on hold whenever there were family decisions to think on. It was hard for Jayne to deal with, but he liked being here, liked being a part of this makeshift family, so he wanted to try to deal with it. He figured it couldn't be easy on Mal having the responsibility for making all those decisions, the least he could do was try to work with it.

And for the most part, Mal really did try to do what was best for them all, he could see that now. But this, this was hard. This wasn't like tracking some hundun down, or keeping lookout for Mal and Zoe during an exchange. While not thrilled with the idea at first, he had gotten used to having a partner, then he actually started liking having someone he could depend on.

But now that partnership was broken- she was on a job by herself. As if that wasn't bad enough, it was a job that made Jayne's head want to explode. He had just gotten her, and now here she was flirting with another man. Job or not, he was gonna lose it.

Simon could see the emotions flitting across Jayne's face and actually felt for him. He sat down next to Jayne as the man sat up on the bench.

"Look, I could talk to her, find out what's going on. I know I wasn't imagining it when she told me about her feelings for you."

Jayne sighed, but held fast. "Thanks, Doc, but I think we oughta leave it alone fer right now." He got up and started walking toward the mess to get a glass of water; he had to get away from Simon. He actually felt bad, here the Doc was trying to be nice to him for once and here Jayne was lying through his teeth to him. Weird.

Simon watched the big man go and didn't attempt to follow. He smelled, rather than heard, Kaylee slip around the corner behind him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sighed.

"I don't get it," she said sadly. "They were so happy, for like 5 minutes! What is she thinking? Jayne's way better for her than that guy, sure he's smart and all, but he can't protect her like Jayne can. And how's that guy gonna handle it the first time he sees her fight? He won't know what hit him!"

Simon leaned back into her. "I don't know what's going on. Seems so unlike River to act like some moonbrained teenager over a guy. She usually sticks with her decisions." He leaned forward and cupped his chin. "Maybe there's more going on here than meets the eye?"

&&&&&&&

Jayne paused in the doorway before entering; he really didn't want to go in there if River and David were still there, he just wanted to get away from Simon before he spilled the beans. He could hear their low voices. They must have moved into the common room. As much as Jayne had told Mal that he would keep an eye on them, he wanted to do it from a short distance rather than close up. He just wanted to be close by in case River needed him; he didn't want to be close enough to hear another man making her laugh. That was supposed to be his job.

He stepped quietly into the mess and quickly turned left to stay out of sight of the common area. No point in David seeing him either, he probably wouldn't be too forthcoming if he saw Jayne hanging around. He grabbed a glass from the cabinet and turned the sink on low to quietly fill it. He felt, rather than saw, River appear beside him.

He glanced down at her and then away at the concern in her eyes. She laid her hand on his side.

"You okay?" she whispered. He fought to keep from smashing the glass into the sink.

"Yeah, great. Just great." He failed to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "You shouldn't be talking to me, yer supposed to be seducin' the l'il puke in there." He turned away.

River almost choked. She could feel the hurt pouring off of Jayne; it was gray and cloudy and rolled off him in waves. She tried to reach out to him again, but her hand was pushed back by the thick grayness. She had to end this. She didn't want to do this anymore, it wasn't right.

She made a decision to come up with an idea to get David to talk more quickly, then she could be done and fix the damage to her and Jayne's relationship. Because job or not, she knew there would be damage to fix. She could already feel that Jayne's doubt about them had returned. That he wasn't good enough for her.

She sadly watched him slip out the door and disappear. Big, tough mercs shouldn't have to slip around their own home. She sighed, and turned back to the common room, determined to take control of the timeline of this mission.

&&&&&&&

It was late. Dinner had been a quiet, strained affair. No on said much, although the mercenary's absence had been conspicuous. Mostly everyone had complimented River on her version of protein beef a la bourguignone, although they were stupefied as to why River was cooking without Jayne, and cooking apparently for another man no less. Everyone had eaten quickly and retired almost as fast. Mal left the mess last, nodding to River and frowning at David's back as he was dumping dishes into the sink to help clean up. River nodded solemnly back and waved for Mal to leave.

And now, a couple hours later, David was well on his way to being completely sloshed. River had decided that the quickest way to get this job over with was to get him drunk. Drunk people talk a lot, more than they normally would, she reasoned, at least that had been her experience with Jayne.

A short while after they had been working together, Jayne had decided to take her out for a 'job-well-done-drink'. Simon had protested of course, but backed off when he saw how happy River was to have someone treating her like a 'normal' girl. Even if the person in question wasn't quite 'normal' himself. Since Miranda, Simon found himself more and more writing off the word 'normal'- it didn't seem to apply to any part of his life anymore.

So the pair had gone out, to a fairly reputable local place. Jayne wasn't stupid enough to take her to some of the places he had frequented in the past. They had sat, drank, chatted, drank, ate nachos, drank, chatted, drank some more. River had had two drinks, then switched to straight soda when she saw how inebriated Jayne was becoming. She figured one of them needed to remember the way back to the ship.

After helping Jayne find his way back to his bunk, she paused before turning to leave.

"Thank you," she said simply.

"Fer wha'?" he slurred, pulling the sheet up to under his chin.

"For treating me like a regular girl."

"Ya ain't no reg'lar girl. Not in my estimation an'ways." River had frowned at that. She had thought he was past calling her names.

"Ya're special. Veddy, veddy, special. 'N donna let an'body tell ya diff'rent." His head tilted sideways and he started snoring.

When she recovered from her shock a couple seconds later, she moved back over to him, kissed him lightly on the forehead, and left.

"River? River?" David was poking her arm. She mentally shook herself out of her reverie. "Didya hear wah I says 'bout that coppa ship?" David drunk was cute, but not nearly as cute as her Jayne. She sighed.

"No, I'm sorry, can you repeat it?" She refocused her energies back to the job.

"The name. Of that ship. _Hermes._ He's the god of communication ya know." He smiled crookedly at her.

"Yes, I am aware of that…"

"But wait! There's more," he grinned impishly. "He's also the god of lawyers. And!...wait for it…thieves! He's the god of thieves!" He laughed out loud and refilled their glasses. River had to admit that the amaretto flavored liquor was very good, too bad the couch cushion behind her was getting to enjoy most of it.

He affected a solemn look then. "That's why I hate them. They're liars. All o' 'em." He downed another shot.

River's head snapped up. David was very close to confessing something, she could feel it. "Who are the liars?" she asked softly.

"Them, that's who. Them 'lliance 'ss'oles. Made me an offer. Real good too. Could 'fford to send Bri-bri to school with the money. But noooooo, got the code, used it 'gainst. Us. People. Wrecked ev'rything." He sighed sadly and shrugged. "And now they're dead. All 'o 'em."

David 'Cosmo' Janek slumped back into the couch cushions, barely holding his glass erect. Gone was the confident young man who seemed to have it all together. He looked broken. River placed a hand on his arm in sympathy and commiseration. She, better than most, could understand the destructive power of the Alliance.

"I'm sorry," she said. She still didn't have all the details, but it was clear that he definitely had a clear, honest motive to be connected to any independent movement. The rumors were there, and there was no reason to believe otherwise. She was startled when David suddenly sat up straight and grinned broadly at her.

"But I'ma gonna fix 'em, yes I 'em. I gots the answer, I did, da one they's was lookin' for, but I's gots it, and they ain't gonna get it, and things are gonna be diff'rent this time!" And he proceeded to fall back into the couch and pass out.


	18. Revelations

_All disclaimers apply_

A/N: Before anyone asks, no the answer is not 42. ;)

Ch. 18- Revelations

River tucked the spare blanket around David's shoulders and left him passed out on the common room couch to go find Jayne. She knew he wasn't far; he had been lurking close by since the job had started. She stumbled through the mess doorway into the cargo bay and giggled.

"Oopsy, I maybe had a little more sips than I think I had," she giggled softly. She looked up to see Jayne sitting on his weight bench, not lifting, just sitting and presently staring at her. He frowned.

"Didn't think gettin' drunk wi' the puke was part of the job description," he snapped. "Guess Mal'll be happy that ya did whatever ya had to do to get the job done."

River's head snapped straight, the fog in her brain clearing a little. "How dare you! I don't think I like what you are implying! I would never…" she stumbled again.

Jayne leaped forward to catch her. "I know, I'm sorry, it's jus that seein' ya wi' him makes me wanna…" he sat back down on the bench with her sprawled across his lap.

River gazed up at him through fuzzy eyes. She reached up one hand and placed it on his cheek. "I'ma so soddy," she fumbled. "I's neva wanna hurt you…I's neva do dis again, tell Cap'n 'Bad Ideas' to go no!" Her hand fell back to her lap.

Jayne smiled at her. He knew the second he heard the clinking earlier that River was going to try the 'get-'im-drunk-an-talkin' technique of interrogation- he also knew she couldn't hold her liquor worth a damn. He had peeked in once just as she was tipping her glass behind her into one of the couch cushions. He bemoaned the loss of what was probably really good drink, but was glad she wasn't partaking with the little Cosmo kid. Maybe he could squeeze the cushion out later.

But it appeared that she may have had more than either of them figured on. And it had caught up with her. She was presently concentrating on keeping her head from lolling over to one side. Jayne gently brushed her hair back out of her face and decided that she needed to be put to bed.

As he stood up with her cradled in his arms she reached out to protest.

"No, no, don't pusha me away! I'ma soddy, I'sa make it up to ya!" she was practically sobbing. Jayne sighed, he didn't want to see her this upset.

"Ev'rythin's gonna be okay, l'il one," he crooned softly in her ear. She turned her head enough to press a sloppy kiss to the side of his mouth. He smiled again and started walking towards her room. He realized right then that it didn't matter whether he was or wasn't good enough for her; he was going to take care of her for as long as she let him. What mattered were his actions going forward. He couldn't do anything about the past- he could only concentrate on the future

And right now his future was curled up in his arms muttering. "Only work with Jayne from now on, no more-a dis go se crap from that Mal." Jayne grinned, she was actually adorable when she was buzzed. He knew that he had been the one to get blitzed the night he had taken her out for her first celebratory drink- he also knew she had put him to bed. He had always wondered if he had said something to give himself away as she had smiled knowingly at him in the days following and had not retorted once when he had tried to be mean to her. Like she wasn't taking the taunting seriously anymore. He knew then it had been the beginning of the end. For him. He hadn't looked elsewhere since then. Not ready to admit someone had him but good, but not feelin' the need to go anywhere else neither.

He had made it to her doorway when he noticed her fingers had started roaming across his chest. Damn, her little fingers felt good, but there weren't no way anythin' was gonna happen 'tween them while she was lit. Leastways not this time.

He stepped inside the room and two steps later he laid her down in her bed. He tried to quickly pull the blanket up over her as now her little fingers were really starting to travel. She pushed the coverlet away and grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and yanked. Jayne was already leaning over and when she yanked hard he lost his balance and practically fell on top of her.

"This is betta," she giggled. Jayne was trying to hold his weight off of her, but she still had ahold of his shirt and didn't look too interested in letting go. She lifted her head up and smushed her lips against his. Jayne started to laugh.

"Listen," he said, pushing himself upright into a kneeling position beside her bed. "We can talk more tomorrow. Jus try and get some sleep fer now, dong ma?"

Her hold on his shirt had loosened somewhat and he gently pried her fingers off. She strained through the enveloping fog in her brain.

"Done'ta leave me. I'ma soddy. You talk to me tomorra?" she pleaded.

"Yes, we'll talk tomorrow. Ev'rythin's gonna be okay," Jayne comforted her.

"Os-kay. Cause I know now. The thing. I'sa knows the thing. Two things really. Nummer one, I'sa need you, jus you. Ans nummer doo, I know what Davie finda. He's got the ting. To ev'ryting." And her head lolled to the side as she passed out.

Jayne brushed her hair back once more before he stood up to leave. "Don't ya worry," he whispered, "I'll take care of ya."

She squinted one eye open and clumsily pulled a cloisonné hair stick out from under her pillow. "You already do," she mumbled, then fell back to sleep.

Jayne sighed, regretful that she couldn't explain more clearly what information she had found out, but thankful that despite her drunken state, he was important enough to her that she wanted to make sure he knew how she felt about him. For tonight, it was enough.

&&&&&&&

Mal took another sip of his coffee; he had to admit that besides Simon, Jayne made the best coffee on the boat.

"So, when do you think our l'il albatross is gonna get up from her hangover?"

"Right here, Captain," River appeared in the doorway holding a hand to the side of her head. Jayne instantly appeared at her side handing over a glass of juice and some pain reliever tabs.

"Thank you," she said, smiling gratefully. She started to say more, but Jayne stopped her.

"Ev'rythin's okay," he mumbled, and led her over to the table to sit down. He went to step away but she grasped his hand and squeezed, tugging until he got the hint to sit beside her.

Mal glanced between the two, grateful that Jayne had already told him that River had some answers for him. He realized that perhaps he hadn't thoroughly thought through the strain this job he gave River would put on others on the ship. Simon had been bugging him for two days to restrict David to quarters for the remainder of the trip, and Mal could clearly see the strain this had been on his gun hand. He smirked; it had been all kinds of amusing that the Doctor was now defending Jayne. Who'da thunk it?

Zoe and Wash entered the mess and sat down at the end of the table. River emptied her glass in a single long swig. Jayne shook his head and smiled to himself, it sure seemed like the girl could drink. She put the glass down and made a face at him while lightly elbowing him. He squeezed her shoulder playfully. He was wide open; she could read everything. All his thoughts were of her. She sighed happily.

"Alright, l'il one, let's hear it," Mal said. Jayne had met him on the bridge earlier and told him that he thought River may have gotten something useful last night. Mal was afraid to ask how, but the twosome seemed okay this morning, so no need for rehashing.

"Captain, it turns out that all of my conversations with Cosmo have been relevant. Every single one since he stepped on board." River paused to let them absorb this.

Wash was the first to speak. "But all he's ever babbled about was his work. Hacking. Or, I'm sorry, 'anti-encryptionist'." Wash snorted.

"But that's what's relevant," River said. "Every story he had about getting into some restricted system was different, right?" Everyone nodded. "Every situation had a unique set of variables that needed to be cracked, hacked, anti-encryptioned. When David was talking the other day about large number theory…"

"Oh, he lost me then," Wash cracked. "I think I went to go look for some cookies."

"Hush, dear," Zoe remonstrated.

"Large number theory?" Jayne asked. "Ya mean like a million zillion?"

River smiled and patted his cheek. "A little bit bigger than that, hon. Numbers so large that even the government's supercomputers would have trouble dealing with them in computational circumstances. The theory goes that there is a number that is so large and variable that it is the solution."

"The solution?" Mal interjected. "The solution to what?"

"Everything," River answered. "Every coded algorithm ever written. The ultimate codebreaker."

"But that sounds impossible on a practical level," Zoe said. "If it's so large that even the Alliance's computers can't compute it, then how could anyone actually use it?"

"There's the rub," River said. "No one has actually been looking for the number itself. It has been theorized that a shorter computational variable could substitute to an acceptable level."

"How 'cceptable?" Jayne asked.

"Acceptable to the level of being capable of cutting through every encryption currently ever written," River said somberly.

"Well, ain't that the same thing?"

"No, it wouldn't necessarily cover coding not yet written."

"Oh, well, that's a relief," Mal said sarcastically. "So this David guy has this 'secret code'?"

"I don't know. He might, or he may just have the core sequencing in his head. Either way, if he's built it into a chip, he wouldn't keep it physically on him, it would be much too dangerous."

"How dangerous?"

"Whoever had it would be able to break into anything," Wash said, straightening up. "It would be like having the key to everything, public or private!"

River nodded solemnly. "No more secrets."


	19. Too Many Secrets

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 19- Too Many Secrets

Mal decided that maybe once again he'd been too trusting. "Jayne, Zoe," he started.

"I'm on it," Jayne replied, stomping out to the cargo bay, Zoe following. The others rose and followed them out. As they entered the bay, Jayne appeared across the way, carrying a crowbar. He strode over to the wall where he and Mal had stored David's crates and helped Zoe pull the panel off. Mal stepped forward, and one by one they hauled all the crates out.

"Any particular one ya want me to start with?" Jayne looked to Mal.

"All of 'em."

Jayne nodded, smiled, and proceeded to lever the crowbar through the top slats of the crate in front of him. They popped off easily, and everyone crowded around to look inside. There was bubble wrap everywhere surrounding the contents.

"Wash, River, start hauling it out. I want it all out on the deck where I can see it. Every last piece of it. Jayne," Mal nodded towards the next crate, "Let's go." They moved on.

River and Wash started pulling out the different sized containers. Zoe started unloading the second crate as Mal and Jayne moved on to a third. They peeled back layers of bubble wrap as the piles grew. Soon there were computer parts everywhere. Monitors, keyboards, servers, power units, software packs. They dug and peeled quickly, the piles growing larger as Mal grew more agitated.

"Tamade! If it turns out this guy is _completely_ on the level…" he paused as Zoe stood up, holding out a small, smooth black box with no markings or indentations of any kind.

"Wash, honey, what's this?" Wash and River walked over to her to look at the device. Jayne and Mal paused to look over.

Wash carefully took the box from Zoe and turned it end over end looking for a latch, a button, any indication of what it could be. River reached out suddenly and, taking the box from Wash's hands, she turned it sideways, and with her thumbs, she popped it open along a barely visible seam. The top end rocked back on a hidden inside hinge, and there, inside, propped up in the center, was another smaller black box.

Wash carefully held the larger outside box as River lifted the smaller one out. She gently pulled the sliding top off and stared inside. And smiled.

"What?" "What is it?" Mal and Jayne asked as they dropped the pieces they were holding and started to walk over.

River looked up and smiled. "It's everything. Anything and everything."

&&&&&&&

Back in the mess, Jayne leaned over the table to get a better look at the inside of River's small black box. Or, rather, David's. All he saw was a slim piece of metal with some wires and tiny screws and what looked to be colorful little cylinder-shaped beads. Wash and River were chittering excitedly over it.

"Never seen a board configured like this before, what do you think he's doing with this?"

"Asymmetric key encryption algorithms need dual channel assimilations," River answered excitedly, fingers tracing over the little circuit board.

"Don't get what ya'll are so excited over a little piece of scrap," Jayne mumbled. This was the part that bothered him, the part he kept telling himself shouldn't bother him, but it did. That this was territory he couldn't keep up with her in. River suddenly looked up at him and touched his arm.

"Different strengths," she murmured calmly. "Kaylee!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Jayne jumped back, startled at the quick change in female vocals.

Kaylee was already striding into the mess on Simon's arm to get some breakfast and was stopped by the mess of tiny tools scattered across the table. "What're you guys up to?"

"Ooh, Kaylee, we could sure use your help," Wash looked up from where he was stripping a few wires. "We're trying to figure out what this does." He paused, then looked at River. "I think we need David's laptop."

River dropped some wiring onto the table and crossed over to the kitchen counter, filled up a coffee cup, and started to leave the mess in the direction of the infirmary. "I'm on it," she stated confidently.

&&&&&&&

The low knock resounded like a cannon off the inside of David's head. He struggled to sit up as the rice paper door slid back and River slipped into the room. He pulled the sheet a little higher up his torso and grimaced.

"I guess I got a little tipsy last night," he mumbled. "I hope I didn't say or do anything untoward." He looked hopefully up at her through his eyelashes.

River smiled at him and sat down on the edge of his bed. "No, no, of course not. You were a perfect gentleman. Here, I brought you some pain reliever." She practically pushed the pills up into his nose in her eagerness.

David slowly, gratefully, took the pills from River and downed them. "Thank you."

"You are very welcome. And now you should lie back down until you feel better. I'll bring you some food later. Maybe some nice over easy eggs with the yolk all runny?" He groaned. "Or some oatmeal with prunes and pureed turnips?" He groaned louder. "I know, some nice minestrone soup with those little black and white beans, you know, the ones that look like eyeballs?"

That did it. David jumped up and ran for the bathroom. River waited until he pushed the door behind him, then quickly reached under his bed to pull his laptop out. She leaped over to the door of his room and slid it just outside onto the floor, quickly pulling the door shut again. She was just settling back onto the end of the bed when the bathroom door opened.

"Sorry, about that," David mumbled shamefaced.

"That is okay, gastrointestinal system is not ready for food just yet. Why don't we get you settled back down here for a nice nap." She jumped up and pulled back the blanket while he crawled back into bed. She tucked him in, then stepped back to leave.

"Thank you, you're so nice to me, not many women are," he said softly. "In fact, almost none at all," he sighed, then drifted off. River stepped back over and smoothed his hair out of his face. She felt badly that she was being deceitful with someone whom she knew wasn't a threat, but her loyalty lay with her family, the one who protected her and put up with her when no one else would. She would just have to make sure that no harm came to him, then she could justify the lies she was playing now. Oh, and the sleeping pills as well. She said he would feel better, she just hadn't said how.

&&&&&&&

Kaylee and Wash were finishing twisting some wiring together and attaching it to one of the monitors from the crates when River came flying back in. She pushed past Jayne and Mal and put the laptop in front of Kaylee.

"Okay, let's see what we have," Kaylee murmured as she connected the relays between the portable computer and the strangely configured circuit board. She clipped the last one into place and clicked a button on the laptop. Nothing. Wash slid the laptop over to himself as Kaylee began to clip and try different combinations. Still nothing.

After a couple of minutes of this trial and error ending in all errors, Mal started getting fidgety again. "Well, we gonna see some action, or are we all gonna be tryin' to put everything back exactly like we found it before you all tore it out of them crates?"

River and Zoe gave him full-on glares, interrupted by a loud beep. Wash jumped. "Kaylee, try that one again."

Kaylee moved the clip back one step, and there on the board was one line of what looked to be some kind of code. Mal looked excited, but Wash just shook his head. "It's garbage."

Kaylee went on down the line of connections. Suddenly Wash yelped. "Stop! Right there." Everyone bent forward. Wash had the laptop screen facing him and they had turned the other monitor so that everyone else could watch as well. There again on the screen was the one line of garbage code.

"Thought you said that was no good," Zoe began.

"No, not there, go back," Wash interrupted. Kaylee moved the clip over.

Suddenly, the screen was completely filled with quickly scrolling code. Everyone hissed and took a step back.

"River," Wash called, "come over here." River hopped over the bench to sit next to Wash, who slid the laptop in front of her. She started typing rapidly.

"Simon, what's the passcode for the Alliance Federal Reserve Parliament Bank?" she casually inquired.

"Well how would I know a thing like that, mei-…" he trailed off as they all stared in amazement at the monitor screen. As River sat back and crossed her arms with a self satisfied smirk, the code began to rapidly disappear one symbol at a time and was replaced with the home page of the Bank's premiere account withdrawal consent form.

The intake of breath was collective and loud. River began clicking away again, and suddenly the screen was offering a choice of passenger liner manifests: cargo and people.

Wash grinned. "Anyone wanna take a free cruise?"

River bent back over the laptop and seconds later the code was again disappearing to be replaced by graphics labeling military deployment around one of the Core planets. As another group gasp occurred, Mal stepped forward.

"Shut it off, shut it off right now." His voice was cold. Wash looked disappointed, but River looked satisfied.

"Now you see," she said, looking the Captain straight in the eye. "There are other ways to win, ways that don't require a gun."

"They'll be comin' after him," Mal said, running a hand through his hair.

"They already are, Sir," Zoe stepped forward. "Those cops back there had to have some idea of why they were even looking for Cosmo in the first place."

"People would definitely kill for this," Wash added. "Whoever has this could get into any system in the known 'verse. Financial, private security, government…"

"No more secrets," River added.

"Apparently not," said David from the doorway.


	20. Revelations Redux

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 20- Revelations- Redux

"You didn't think you oughta tell me what the real cargo was?!" Mal demanded as David calmly entered the mess and walked over to refill the coffee cup River had left him.

"Captain, with all due respect, you were hired to haul crates, not ask questions," David answered haughtily. River swallowed and slumped down, suddenly feeling guilty for her part in deceiving David. Jayne noticed and scowled. That she should care what the l'il puke thought bothered him.

David turned to River. "And you, what a genius you are. Don't you think you should have given me the sleeping pills _after_ making me sick?" he scolded.

Simon turned to River with a gasp. "You didn't! Did you try to drug him?!"

"Simon, how can you think that? After everything she's been through?" Kaylee defended her friend.

River's head was practically in her lap as David addressed her again. "Yes, River, I'm sure you would be the last person to drug someone after all you've been through. Maybe that's why you screwed up. Subconciously you couldn't do it." She couldn't tell if he was still being sarcastic or if he was trying to let her off the hook.

Jayne was wavering between the two of them. He wanted to hit David for lying to Mal and all of them and putting them in a potentially dangerous situation- hell, they didn't need his help getting into trouble, they had the Captain for that. But he was stunned that River would do such a thing, drug someone, or, as it turned out, attempt to drug someone.

River looked up at Jayne with tears in her eyes. "It was only sleeping pills, just a couple, nothing like the psychotropic drugs Simon used to have me on! The extra sleep would have alleviated his hangover, and given us the extra time we needed." She was really upset now. She realized she _hadn't _thought through her actions; she had been so eager to figure out the puzzle, the most challenging puzzle she had yet to come across, that she may have acted rashly.

David looked back and forth between River and Jayne, seeing the pleading in her eyes for Jayne, not him, to forgive her. He realized that things hadn't changed between the girl and the merc, that he himself had been played. He started to get angry.

"Yes, help me with a hangover that I very well could have lived without since you apparently were bullshitting me the entire time you were pretending to show interest in me." He turned abruptly on his heel and strode out of the mess.

River burst into tears. How had this all gone so wrong? She had wanted to help her family, she had wanted to figure out the puzzle…

Jayne wasn't a mind reading genius, but he did know people, enough to keep him alive this long. He hadn't decided if he was mad at her or not yet, but right now he knew that this was about her and her confusion. That's just it, he thought. She doesn't see that it's really not about her at all.

Mal, having recovered from the commotion, resumed yelling. "What the hell is going on around here! River, you _drugged_ him?! And where's he think he's goin'! I find out I gots some guy with the 'key' to the gorram 'verse, and he walks away from me! Jayne! Go get him and drag his sorry ass back here!" Mal commanded, putting his hands on his hips and feeling a whole lot more Captain-y again, for the moment.

Jayne grabbed River's arm and pulled her out of the mess with him. She looked up at him questioningly. "Wanna talk to you before I go grab and drag the l'il puke," he mumbled.

Two steps into the bay and Jayne whirled around. "Look, I know you didn't mean to do anythin' wrong, that you were excited 'bout figurin' the secrets of the 'verse and all- but ya did screw up. This is not 'bout you. This is 'bout ev'ryone, not just on this boat, but ev'ryone, ev'rywhere. People like you and me and Kaylee and Simon, all over the 'verse. I may not have much in the way of book schoolin' like ya and ya'r brother, but I understand this. This thing is dangerous and in the wrong hands it could hurt ev'ryone."

He pulled a handkerchief out of his side pocket and started to wipe the tears and snot off her face. She was still snuffling a little, but trying to stop. Jayne sighed. He ran his fingers down her jawline and grasped her chin.

"Look, you go apologize to him and walk him back here, or I'm gonna have to drag him back to the Captain."

River looked at him stunned. "You want me to go after him? I thought you hated him?"

Jayne sighed again. Seemed to be doing that a lot today. "I guess he wouldn't be that bad if you wasn't involved," he said. "See, it's not him I hate, it's who he is." He bowed his head and wouldn't look at River. "He smart 'nough fer ya," he mumbled.

Jayne's demeanor snapped River out of feeling sorry for herself. She grabbed Jayne's chin, hard, and yanked his face into hers. As their lips met, she let go of his chin to wrap her arms around his neck and locked him there. She kissed him hard, at first chastely, then she opened her mouth and proceeded to try to scoop the doubt out of his head with her tongue. All thought flew out of his head. His hands started to run down her backside to… "Hey! Where the hells my wayward passenger!"

Jayne and River stepped apart, Jayne shaking his head to clear it. "Um, yeah, Captain, we're goin' to get 'im right now." Sliding River's hand into his Jayne left the bay with her in tow to go retrieve Cosmo.

&&&&&&&

Jayne nodded encouragingly at River from the far end of the hallway as she hesitated before knocking. She raised her hand again, only to have the door slammed back and one angry passenger in her face.

"What do you want?! I seem to be fresh out of friendly chit-chat and apparently never had the muscles for this anyways," David hissed.

"I, I, I'm sorry," River stuttered. "I didn't mean…"

"Maybe not at first, you didn't. I think your intentions were honest then. But after discovering that you preferred the giant corn-fed meathead to me, then approaching me again and acting all cozy- that, that was crap. The funny thing is, I probably would have told you everything anyways by the end of this trip, just because I do like you and it was nice to talk to someone who has a modicum of intelligence."

"I'm sorry," River said again. "I wasn't thinking clearly, I was so intrigued by…"

"Yes, well, I think.."

"Enough!" Jayne stepped up. "Look, she's tryin' to apologize, and if ya're gonna do anymore thinkin' out loud it'd better be in front of the Captain."

David looked up at Jayne. "And if I say no, you're going to drag me there?"

Jayne smiled. Kid was smarter than Simon even. "Looks like."

David sighed and looked back at River. "I'm not really mad at you, you know, just hurt. I mean, I told you stuff about my family…"

She stepped up and put a hand on his arm. Jayne looked away, trying not to react like a jealous teenager. "I know," she said. "And I told you things about mine. No more deceit, I promise. We can do this together." She turned to walk down the hall toward the Captain and the mess. David looked to Jayne.

"Are you going to hit me?" he asked simply.

Jayne grinned again. "Nah, I trust her. Besides, if she can take me down I got no worries 'bout you." He turned away to follow her back down the hall.

"Take _you_ down?" David asked incredulously. How was that even possible?

&&&&&&&

River entered the mess solemnly, trailed by Jayne and David. Mal walked forward from where he had been talking quietly with Zoe and Inara, who had come down while they were gone. Kaylee stepped forward to put an arm around her friend.

"You alright?" she asked River concernedly. River nodded her assent and went to sit down with the mechanic. Jayne stepped to the side to allow David to pass by and sit down at the spot at the table that Mal was pointing to. Inara watched Jayne's body language; she had been brought up to speed by Zoe and she was surprised that Jayne didn't appear to be too threatening towards David. Simon, on the other hand was glaring at both David and his sister.

"You are not allowed into my infirmary unsupervised, young lady. And you, leading her on…"

"Hey, I did nothing of the sort…"

"With all your little technical showing off…"

Wash started to giggle at Simon. "He fights like a girl, doesn't he honey?" he asked his wife. Zoe was trying hard not to laugh herself.

Simon was miffed. "I do not! Just because I don't headlock people like someone I could mention…"

Jayne snorted. "Ya don't quit yer whining I'ma gonna have to headlock ya again, Doc. David didn't lead yer sister on, it was the other way 'round."

Everyone stared at River as she concentrated on her lap. Kaylee was the first to recover.

"You mean you was fakin'?" River nodded.

"River honey, why would you do something like that?" Inara jumped in.

Mal stepped up. The girl had been through enough trauma today. "Because I asked her to." All glares turned towards him.

Nothing like a roomful of women glaring at you to make you question your Captain-y-ness. He swallowed, then attempted to defend himself.

"Look, this was my call. I got a boatload of feds out there tailing us, I gotta right to know what's goin' on! So, instead of beatin' it out of the kid, I saw an angle and went with it. What's done is done." He looked to David. "Now start talkin'. What 'zactly are your plans with this thing?" He gestured towards the device still on the table.

David crossed his arms and shook his head. "I don't know the whole picture. I'm merely a technician in all this." Mal snorted, clearly not buying it.

"It's true," David continued. "Look, this device, it's one piece of a larger picture, one I don't have. I'm not in charge, I'm just a contributor."

Mal leaned in close. "Contributin' to what?"

David glanced between Mal and Zoe before answering. "The next civil war against the Alliance."


	21. Teamwork

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 21- Teamwork

Zoe entered the bridge quietly and paused by the pilot's seat.

"Do you believe him?" Mal questioned, not moving his eyes from the starry view in front of them.

"Yes, I do." They had spent the better part of three hours grilling David after his little revelation. On people, locations, plans, logistics. David had been fairly forthcoming with them regarding some names and places, but he had pleaded ignorance or 'classified info' when Mal's and Zoe's questions became too pointed. They had relented knowing that if he had actually answered everything they asked then he would have either proven himself to be a spy or a complete incompetent. And right now, no one was going to believe that David 'Cosmo' Janek was incompetent.

"Sir, what do you want to do?" Zoe kept her question general, but Mal knew that it applied equally to whether or not they help David, and also to whether or not Mal was considering rejoining the cause. Mal sighed and turned to her.

"For right now, let's keep it simple." Zoe snorted, when was their kind of life ever simple? "We need to throw those feds off our trail. We can't drop Cosmo off at his destination with an Alliance clean-up party behind him."

"I'll get Wash and Kaylee on it, Sir. Maybe they can pull the tag without the feds noticing and attach it to a crybaby."

"My thoughts exactly."

Wash suddenly appeared in the doorway with Kaylee eagerly trying to squeeze her head in after him.

"Cap'n, me and Wash was thinkin'…"

"And you know how much I like it when you start thinkin', l'il Kaylee," Mal smirked at her and nodded to Wash. "Get on it, you two."

A chorus of enthusiastic "Yes, Cap'n!" "Yes, Sir"s floated back in from the two retreating crew members. Mal smiled.

"It never fails to amaze me how happy those two get when we're all in a pickle."

"Well, our pickles do tend to give the kids something to play with, Sir," Zoe smirked back.

&&&&&&&

Kaylee and David were hanging outside the airlock gently prying and testing a small round object attached to the ship that looked like a barnacle from Earth-That-Was. Some eyebrows had risen when they were inside getting ready to E.V.A. and David had seemed to know exactly how to prep a suit, but by that point they all had work to do and any more grilling would have to wait. The rest of the crew had agreed to help David when Mal had called a vote on it- after clearly making sure that they understood that they weren't voting on a job but something above and beyond their normal duties. Jayne had tried to make a crack about getting to vote on any future job offers, but a glare from Zoe had sufficed to shut him down.

Currently David and Kaylee were working to unattach the tracking tag placed there earlier during the visit from the feds. David was trying to hold the flashlight steady as Kaylee peered closer at the apparatus.

"It's real shiny of ya to volunteer to come out here and help me," Kaylee was saying. "Not everybody can come out here ya know, not everybody can handle being this close to being into the black, ya know, the big nothingness."

David swallowed and averted his eyes from the view beyond the edge of the ship and back to the job at hand.

"Yeah, well, I'm not thrilled to be out here, but I appreciate you guys helping me out."

Kaylee stopped to glance over at him. "Ya okay, 'bout River and all?"

David reverted his eyes back out to the depth-defying view. "Suppose I have to be. You know, I knew she was with Jayne, I caught them one night by accident in the cargo bay. So I was confused when she started being all attentive the very next day, but then I figured, hell, why not go with it, how often does a pretty girl pay me any attention? Looks like I should have stuck to logic." He shifted his gaze back to look at the casing.

Kaylee patted his suited arm. "Sorry, 'bout that. River probably just got caught up in trying to contribute to the Captain and the boat. She's been real keen on proving herself since he started trusting her enough to give her a job and pair her up with Jayne."

David paused at that. "Pair her up with Jayne? I thought he was the ship's 'security'? I suppose she's the brains of that operation," he smiled wryly.

"Oh, no, I mean she has the skills and all, but Jayne's been teaching her 'bout the real stuff. You know, real-world type stuff. How to handle herself on a job, how to fight as a team and not just alone, reading body language and not just people's minds, that sorta stuff."

David was staring at her in shock. "Wait, you mean they are taking a beautiful girl with her intelligence and turning her into a mercenary?! That's criminal!"

Kaylee surprised him again by laughing. "No, no, the Alliance already did that. Trained her to be an assassin. A weapon for them to use. We may do crime, but here she's her own person, actual and whole. Not a tool. Jayne's been like a mentor to her, help given her a purpose."

David looked thoughtful. River had told him some of what had been done to her. "Then do you think that maybe she's with him now out of gratitude? That maybe someday she's going to wake up and realize that she's grateful for his help, but that was the only reason she's in a relationship with him?"

Kaylee snorted. "Not likely. Those two have been working together for a while. Look, it's not like their relationship is some sorta fling. It's taken them over a year to get to where they are today. And I think Jayne is letting her call the shots, prolly cause she's younger and he doesn't want her to feel any pressure."

"Call the shots? You mean they haven't been together yet, don't you?"

Kaylee hesitated, then tried to backtrack. "Well, I hardly think that's anyone's business but theirs…"

So they haven't, David thought to himself. They aren't completely bonded yet. There's still a chance. A chance that despite her recent treatment of himself, maybe she would want something better than running around the 'verse committing crime with these people. He, David, could give her that. He had the resources; he could offer her the life she deserved. Hmmm…

Kaylee was watching him nervously now. She wasn't sure what she had said exactly, but she knew wheels were turning. Oh, this did not look good.

Inside the hatch, Jayne pulled the headphones off his head. He had agreed to take over Wash's monitoring of Kaylee and David's walk outside so the pilot could go start on programming the crybaby. David's questioning of Kaylee's ramblings on the whys and wherefore's of his and River's relationship had unintentionally kickstarted his doubts again. What if David was right? That River's feelings stemmed from gratitude, not passion? That wasn't right. He wanted to be with someone who wanted him for who he was, not because they felt they owed him. And, truth was always going to be, that she could do better. Jayne sighed and went to get Wash back there; no sense in Kaylee and David knowing he had heard them.


	22. Doubts

_All disclaimers apply_

Sensitivity warning: Some higher rated activity implied at end of chapter, no actual desciption. I may be overstating the matter- but to be forewarned is to have four arms. ;)

Ch. 22- Doubts

Wash was finishing off the last connection on the back of the decoy sitting in the middle of the mess table. River sighed loudly, tapping her foot.

"I know, I know, I'm moving!" Wash grabbed his tools, picked up the crybaby and started to leave the mess. "Wouldn't want to get in the way of a girl cooking for her man," he teased her, grinning from ear to ear.

"Quiet, you!" she snapped. "I need the table so they can cool properly." She came around the edge of the counter with a large sheet tray in each mitted hand. Then she paused; she had forgotten to get out the cooling rack first and now her hands were full of what was soon to be very hot heat working its way through the oven mittens. She started back to the stove when Inara happened through the doorway.

"Ooh, Inara, can you please help me? I need that rack there, oh yes, thank you." She gratefully slid the contents of the flat pans onto the cooling rack. "Thank you for rescuing me, my hands were starting to burn." She smiled gratefully at the Companion, who was looking at her with much amusement in her eyes.

Inara bent to inspect the small golden orbs cooling on the table while River dropped the pans onto the stovetop to cool. She sniffed delicately, then smiled.

"Are these ginger snaps? They smell wonderful, River. Where did you learn to make them?" Inara was impressed. River seemed to have taken her cooking lessons with Jayne to heart.

River blushed. "Actually, they are a recipe from his mother. I got it out of his head." She had the grace to look embarrassed at the thievery.

Inara smiled. "Well, I am sure Jayne will love them. Any particular occasion?" she probed.

River hesitated, then burst into tears. Inara, startled, rushed over to wrap her arm around the girl's shoulder and pull her into a hug. "Honey, what's wrong? Tell me, did Jayne say something to upset you? You know he's not always the best with words, dear."

River sniffled. "It's not him, it's me. I passed him in the hallway when he was coming back from monitoring Kaylee outside, and he barely glanced at me. When I called to him, he just mumbled that he was busy and didn't have time to talk to me and he kept on going. I, I didn't know what to do, so I read him." She hung her head.

"And that's when you got the cookie recipe?" Inara asked. She knew something was going on with these two, but trying to lighten the mood couldn't hurt.

River giggled through her snuffling. "No, I got that the last time we cooked. I just wanted to glean something that I could make on my own for him and surprise him sometime."

"And that time is now?" Inara prodded further.

"No, well yes, oh Inara, he just won't listen to me!" River smacked her little fist against the counter top.

"Maybe you had better start from the beginning, mei-mei," Inara soothed her.

"We've been through this over and over ever since David came on board. Before David, everything was fine. It was just Jayne and me, and that's all we had to concentrate on. But then David comes along, and, I mean, he's not a bad sort and it was fun to talk to him and all, but Jayne has taken it badly from the start."

"Well, I could see him being the jealous type."

"No, it was nothing like that. He keeps thinking that David, or someone else for that matter, would be better for me than him. He almost pushed me away before this whole 'ultimate code key' discovery thing came out." River wiped her nose gratefully on the handkerchief Inara handed her.

Inara, for her part, was stunned. She would have assumed that Jayne would be the type to physically threaten any man who even looked at River twice. To know that he was considering what was best for her and that it may not necessarily be him was an unexpected side to his character. River continued.

"At first it was just about that David was smarter than him. I told Jayne that while I enjoyed talking to David about different things, that he was smart about other things, things I needed to survive out here. That he helped me in ways David never could."

"Things seemed better after that?" Inara inquired.

"Yes, at first, then he started to doubt himself again during the 'job' the Captain gave me, so we had another talk." Inara grimaced at this, if Mal ever gave another ridiculous assignment like that again she was going to personally…

"And then I thought we were fine, but just now…" she started crying again. "And I am going to set him straight once and for all!" she blubbered out.

"With cookies, dear?" Inara poked her side gently and smiled.

"Partly," River answered. She looked up at the perfectly dressed and make-upped Companion. "Just now, he is thinking that David or somebody with more money can give me a better life than running around the 'verse with a bunch of criminals." She snorted. "He insults me, and he insults my family. If he is so worried about what is best for me, than I wish him to shut up and listen to me, and what _I_ want and need." The Companion was proud to see the girl straighten up as she made her speech.

"Will you help me, Inara?"

Inara smiled. "Of course I will, dear. First things first, let's do something about the redness around your eyes."

&&&&&&&

Jayne was rehearsing his apology speech when he heard his bunk hatch lock being picked open. He sighed and stood up, walking over to the bottom of the ladder; he wanted to talk to her in the hallway, not his bunk. But he was too slow, as evidenced by the faceful of silk and the warm smell of…was that ginger? hitting him in the face.

"Oof!" River slipped halfway down the rungs and fell, cookies and all, into Jayne. Who was not expecting cookies and a girl to fall into his bunk. As he was not prepared for the impact, he crumbled down onto the floor with said cookies and girl on top of him. She glared at him.

"What's this? What? What I'd do wrong?" He cringed back from the look on her face.

"I am trying to make a point and you wrecked it!" she pouted. She managed to slide the cookies from her lap back onto the plate and then tried to stand up with dignity. But Jayne wasn't taking the blame that easily- she had fallen into _his_ bunk- and well, those cookies smelled good. As she leaned forward to get her legs under her, he suddenly wrapped his arms around her and stopped her forward movement.

"Let me go! I am trying to…"

Jayne laughed. "What? Attack me with cookies? Okay, you win. Now can I have some?"

River burst into tears. Jayne had his hand halfway to his mouth and debated tossing the cookie into his mouth before comforting the girl, but knew he couldn't. He put the cookie back onto the plate and pulled her completely onto his lap.

"What's going on?" he asked gently, smoothing back her hair. He could see now that she had some light lipstick and mascara on, must have been 'Nara's doing. And that robe, he looked closer and realized that River was definitely wearing a robe that was not hers. It was a deep red, almost black, silk, and it had slid partway up her legs as she lay crumbled on top of him. Hmmm. Fresh baked cookies and a pretty silk wrapped girl falling out of the sky into Jayne Cobb's bunk. Must bought a lotto ticket somewheres.

River reared her head back to glare at him again. He couldn't help himself, he started laughing.

"Ya listenin' in?" he asked. She nodded and started to drop her chin again. He grabbed it and made her look him in the eye.

"I knows ya read me this afternoon after I heard what Kaylee and the l'il puke was talkin' 'bout. I know that there's always gonna be someone richer than me, smarter than me, whatever. But ya gots me for as long as ya wants. 'Specially as long as ya keep making me cookies." He unsuccessfully avoided her swatting him. He grinned at her and proceeded to steal a cookie. "Whoa, these are good," he mumbled, spitting crumbs at her.

River was confused. "But I thought you were having doubts again?"

"I was," Jayne said, popping another ginger snap into his mouth. "But ya'r brother talked me out of it."

"Simon? Talked you into realizing that we belong together?" River was stunned.

"Yup, he did. Said that the reality was that I was the only one he knew who could protect ya, and that I was the one ya really wanted. That ya told him that I had the 'key' to ya, whatever that means." He tossed two more cookies into his open maw.

"Huh," River said, realizing that Simon had not only actually listened to her, but that he believed her. River looked down to see that half the cookies were gone. She pulled the plate away from Jayne.

"Hey! Can't I have s'more?" he asked plaintively, like a little kid.

"No," River answered calmly, "the rest are for Simon." Jayne grunted in disappointment. Then his eyes adjusted to a new feast, the silky one in front of him.

"So," he said licking the crumbs off his lips, "if that was dinner, what's for dessert?" he asked mischievously.

River smiled back at him. "A truffle," she said. Jayne looked at her confused.

"Ya mean like one-a them chocolaty things?"

"Yes. With the chocolate shell and then the filling inside."

"Well, well." Jayne reached forward to tug lightly at the silk tie around her waist. "So there's more candy under the wrap is what yer tryin' ta tell me?" His grin was infectious. River smiled and leaned in. "Yes," she whispered.

Jayne's grin suddenly disappeared as he realized that she was not kidding around. She was here, the woman he loved, in his room, with nothing but a silk robe on, offering herself to him. He swallowed, then leaned forward and looked her directly in the eyes.

"Ya sure 'bought this darlin'?" he asked gently. She nodded and leaned forward to kiss him.

"I trust you," she whispered. The look in her eyes shook him, deep down inside where he lived.

"I'll take care of you," he promised.

"You always do," she answered as their lips met.


	23. Back to Work

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 23- Back to Work

"…and I threw the sparklers into the heating grate as I was walking out of the dorm and the next thing you know, all you can see through the windows are guys flying through the air, ducking for cover, sparks flying…"

The entire table roared with laughter. Mal entered the mess scratching his head.

"Well, everybody seems to be in a fine fettle this mornin'," he commented, "'specially see'in as all the work needs to be done."

Kaylee was still laughing. "Oh, Captain, ya just missed one of Wash's flight school stories! So funny…"

"Well, be that as it may, l'il Kaylee, we got us some work to be done." All crew were present and accounted for in the mess this morning, as requested by Mal's 0700 comm call. They had grabbed various forms of breakfast and were currently passing around the coffee carafe for refills. Inara waited in a seat next to Mal's and smiled at Jayne quietly rubbing small circles on River's lower back while they were laughing at Wash's story. David sat at the far end of the table trying to not look at them.

"Wash, the decoy's all set?"

"Yup, crybaby's good to go. We'll pass an asteroid cluster about a half day's ride out from Bristol, Kaylee and I thought that would be a good place to send it. The tag's attached, she got it off the ship without any indicators going off. Should give them something to do for a few hours."

"Good, hopefully they'll go for it. Jayne, we're packing okay in munitions inventory?"

"Yeah, I got 'nough to blow a few things up," he smirked. River giggled and beamed up at him. Great, Mal thought, I've got my resident genius assassin and mercenary giggling 'bought firearms. Should make for interestin' times.

"Simon?" Mal continued to run down his list.

"All set, Captain, for any human repairs that may need to be done." He beamed at Kaylee, proud of his machinery pun. Kaylee rewarded him with a giggle. This was just great, the Captain thought, I've got a crew consisting of giddy lovebirds. He looked to Zoe for support, but she was leaning into Wash and smiling at something he was whispering into her ear. Mal sighed in frustration.

Inara laid a hand on his arm and commented quietly. "This is the best functioning, most efficient they've ever been, Mal. A happy crew is a…"

"I know, it's just a bit disconcertin' is all. My crew is giggling before we get into a possible situation…"

"They're relaxed professionals who know their jobs, Mal," Inara tried to reassure him.

River had started listening in and interjected at this. "Captain, we're ready. I promise." She looked around the table at everyone, paused in their various conversations. They each looked to the Captain and nodded their agreement with River.

"Alright then, I'm gonna turn the floor over to Mr. Janek here, who's gonna explain to us exactly what we're running into."

"Thank you Captain. Well, I honestly don't see any problems after Kaylee and Wash divert the federal officials off of our tail. All of Bristol is strongly anti-Alliance; it's basically been turned into a new Independent stronghold.

David continued. "We'll be meeting with a man by the name of Shaw. He's pretty high up the regime. We just need to drop off the crates your crew repacked and you can be on your way."

"You stayin' or are ya comin' with us?" Kaylee asked.

David hesitated, trying not to see River in his peripheral vision. "I'll be staying dirtside, I think. I can help here."

Mal nodded approvingly. "Alright, then people, let's get set up for this. Hopefully the next ten hours will turn out to less than interesting."

&&&&&&&

Everyone gathered on the bridge to check out the asteroid field. Jayne, River and Kaylee were making bets on which of the rocks flying by on their port side would collide with each other next. Wash had eased up on their speed and was busy double checking monitors.

"See them?" Mal was hanging over Wash, a position everyone could see was not the pilot's favorite. "Are they there? How close are they?"

Wash gritted his teeth and put on his 'super professional' face. "Captain," he said slowly, "the fed boat is currently far enough back that they're not going to notice us dropping off their little present. We programmed the crybaby decoy so it will speed up a bit, then slow down in the field, enough to look like we spotted them and made a little hide-and-go-seek run from them."

Kaylee leaned forward onto the console and pointed. "There, Wash, right near that big one. What do you think?"

Wash looked over to where she was pointing and nodded. "Yeah, that'll work. Alright, you get on down to the engine room. Comm me when you're ready."

David looked around nervously. "Should we, ah, I don't know, strap in or something?"

Jayne snorted. "We're shutting down fer a minute, not goin' faster." River elbowed him lightly and murmured. "Be nice."

Jayne smirked at David and lowered his head to gently kiss the top of River's head. "Anything you want, Baby Girl."

Inara and Zoe rolled their eyes at each other. "Who said guys aren't capable of being catty?" Inara murmured under her breath. Zoe nodded in agreement.

"Okay, Wash, ready on your mark," Kaylee's voice came over the comm.

"Right, now, when I say 'now', everyone needs to be nice and quiet for a few minutes," Wash instructed them. "We want them to believe we took a little detour into the asteroid field and we can't do that if we're giving off any residual chatter to their sensors."

Mal glared at everyone. "You heard the man, everyone shut it. That means you too, Jayne." Everyone started to giggle.

"Okay people, in five, four, three,…"Wash counted down. "Now, Kaylee," he finished calmly. The ship was suddenly engulfed in darkness and total silence as Kaylee cut all the power excepting life support. A small whoosh was heard, and in the distance they could see the launched decoy light up and speed off into the field, rocks flying by narrowly missing it. They lost sight of it after it passed a particularly large asteroid.

Wash glanced down at his console. "We're good. It's still flying."

Everyone let out a collective sigh but continued to keep quiet. Serenity drifted forward on the course Wash had set, her momentum carrying her past the asteroid field.

A few more minutes ticked by. Wash suddenly sat back, put his hands behind his head and looked up, grinning at everyone.

"They took it. They took the bait, they're slowing up and turning in."

Mal clapped his pilot on the shoulder. "Good job. Kaylee, let's give them a couple more minutes to get tangled in there, and then we can fire her back up."

"Okay, Cap'n," she commed back.

&&&&&&&

Four hours later Serenity approached Bristol Moon. While it didn't seem like much to look at, it had evolved rather well as a small farming community. That's the way it looked to outsiders anyway. The few centralized townships were haven to an underground stronghold.

"There," David pointed out as Wash piloted the ship towards the outskirts of one of the smaller townships. He deftly set the boat down beside a worn, but efficient looking, docking area. Workers scurried to and fro, repairing and re-supplying the three other ships already there.

The ramp lowered and Mal looked around and grunted, apparently satisfied that they weren't walking into a hot zone. Zoe hailed a dock worker over and pointed to the crates. He turned and started waving at others and a couple of dollies appeared. In a matter of seconds the crates were whisked away, David signing off on some official looking clipboard. He turned to Mal.

"I need to bring the, um, item, to the meeting place," he said hesitantly. He wanted to get off the ship as soon as possible, and he was trying to say good-bye. Mal smiled at him.

"It ain't that easy, son. We'll be going with you to make sure the right people get this 'key'. I ain't inclined to just let you wander off with a device that could be horribly destructive in the wrong hands."

David sighed. He had actually been hoping that the soldier would accompany him as he had not met these people face to face yet and he was nervous. He gestured out to the street. "Let's go then."

&&&&&&&

Mal and Jayne trudged up the back streets of town following David. David had not been thrilled when he heard that Jayne would be coming, but looking at the huge, armed mercenary out of the corner of his eye, he realized that as long as the Captain had him under control that maybe he was an asset to have on your side.

"So what exactly do you know about this guy that makes you trust him?" Mal was questioning.

"Miranda," David answered. Mal and Jayne stopped in their tracks. David turned back around and smiled grudgingly at them. "Shaw had family on Miranda, his sister's. He had a small successful machine shop, then his relations disappeared. Couldn't get straight answers out of anybody, so he went back to school nights, expanded his business. Turned it into a right little industrial monopoly. All your basic industrial services, his company manufactures the equipment for. The boring kind of business that everyone ignores, but turns the owner into a multi-millionaire. The kind that has money and influence with people that can make things happen.

"Then one day there was a little wave from Miranda- to everyone in the 'verse. Shaw stopped looking for his family. And started looking for a way to prevent others from losing theirs. We're here."

David stepped up to the door of the warehouse in front of them and knocked a sequence. The door cracked open and a face appeared.

"Yes?" a young man politely inquired.

"I'm looking for some fresh lemons," David answered. Jayne snorted, Mal glared. The door opened wider.

They stepped through into the dimly lit warehouse, Mal and Jayne spreading out behind David and looking around. The young man led them further into the dimly lit warehouse then turned around.

"Do you have it?"

David hesitated. "You're Shaw?"

"No, he was busy. He asked me to fill in for him."

Mal stepped forward. "Now wait just a minute here…"

The lights suddenly turned fully on, flooding the room. At least a dozen Alliance soldiers stepped forward, surrounding them. And approaching with a cocky walk was none other than Lt. Trace.

"You didn't think that little stunt you pulled near the asteroid field would really work, did you?" he snarked. Mal sighed.

"Never goes according to plan. Never."


	24. Serenity’s Angels

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 24- Serenity's Angels

After binding their hands behind their backs, Mal, Jayne, and David were brought to a back room for holding. It was a small office room with several cubicles and only one door. Which of course had a window and two guards.

"I don't think those are sonic rifles," Jayne commented.

"And the difference to our situation would be?" Mal asked angrily.

"Jus sayin'. Those things hurt like a son ofa…"

"And real bullets are better?" scowled David.

"No, actually, better recon info would have been better," Mal snapped before Jayne had a chance.

David had the grace to hang his head. "I'm sorry. I really didn't have any reason to think anything like this would happen. When those feds boarded us, that was the first indication I had that they were getting close. I really thought your decoy plan worked, Captain."

Mal sniffed and took a moment to think. It hadn't actually been his plan, but Wash and Kaylee were pretty much the technical brains of his operation, and he had approved their plan. Which, as Captain, made it his plan, his responsibility.

"I thought it was a good plan too," he answered. David immediately appreciated that the Captain was taking the responsibility.

"Alright, if'n we're done chit-chatting, can we get to the escape portion of our ev'ning?" Jayne demanded.

"I agree with the big guy," came a voice from behind one of the nearby cubicle walls. All three jumped to their feet to be greeted by a man of medium height flanked by two larger men. None of them had their hands bound.

"I'm Lt. Jay Shaw, 43rd Independent Regiment, Bristol contingent," he introduced himself. He gestured at the two men behind him. "And this is Daniel and Mathis, two of my aides." He turned back to the three surprised men in front of him. "I'm honored, Sergeant Reynolds, that you yourself would ensure young David's safety here. He's very important to our cause."

"Well, now, Lt. Shaw, be that as it may, it's _Captain_ Reynolds now, and I wouldn't say entirely that I took young David here under my wing so much as he fell into my lap." Jayne snorted.

"Captain, you didn't have to walk him here and we all appreciate the protection you have afforded him."

David stepped forward. "You do know I'm standing right in front of you while you're talking about me, right?"

&&&&&&&

River was letting Kaylee win her third round of hearts when she jumped up off her crate seat on the ramp.

"They got them!" she yelled. She turned to run up the ramp into the ship.

"Who got who?" asked Simon, who was just walking onto the ramp.

"Simon, after all this time, ya really have ta ask?" Kaylee jogged past him with the deck of cards in one hand and a folded up lawn chair in the other.

"No," he sighed. "I guess not".

&&&&&&&

River was already on the bridge and had updated Zoe and Wash by the time Kaylee and Simon arrived.

"So what's the big rescue plan?" Kaylee asked brightly. Zoe frowned at her.

"This isn't exactly cake, Kaylee. They're being held by Alliance. We need to be careful."

"Didn't David say this moon was mostly anti-Alliance?" Wash asked.

"Yes, but what that does that have to do with…aahhh," Simon nodded.

"Not Mr. Top Three Percent for nothing I see, Doc," Zoe nodded approvingly. "We're going to need some help, and why not local?"

Inara appeared in the doorway. "I couldn't find anyone, what are you all doing here…oh, they got taken didn't they?"

"And ten points to the pretty lady!" exclaimed Wash. He glanced at Zoe quickly, nervously. "Of course not as pretty as you, dear."

"Yeah, yeah," Zoe brushed the non-slight from her ever-joking husband. "Alright, we need a way in there. Suggestions?"

River suddenly perked from a frown to a wide grin while looking Inara. "I think I've got just the thing." She began bobbing her head up and down enthusiastically. "Oh yes, I know exactly how to get us in there without firing a shot."

Kaylee was interested. "No shooting, huh? Can I come along?"

Simon started to shake his head but River pushed at his arm. "Yes, Kaylee, I think all the girls are needed for this one." She looked pointedly at Inara.

&&&&&&&

"Okay, so everyone's in agreement?" Mal looked around and was greeted with a chorus of yesses.

Jayne came over from where he had been surreptitiously checking on the guards outside. He had, in fact, been over to the doorway to use the frame to scratch an itch along his shoulder blade that he couldn't quite reach.

"So, what's the plan?" he asked. Everyone groaned.

"Have you not been paying attention!?" David snapped. It bothered him that the hired gun was being so cavalier about their situation.

Jayne laughed and clapped David on the back, almost sending him to the ground. "Jus kiddin' 'young man'" he teased. He looked to the Captain. "The usual?" he asked, all business now.

Mal nodded. The six men split and approached the door. Suddenly the door at the end of the hall outside the room slammed open and a young Alliance soldier came running through, grinning from ear to ear. He spoke to the two stationed guards in low tones, gesturing and grinning excitedly. The two guards started grinning like idiots and followed him back out the door, leaving the hallway empty.

Mal and company looked at each other in amazement. "Wow, you guys are good," joked Shaw. He stepped back as Jayne proceeded to pop the door open with his shoulder. "Let's go."

They slipped quietly down to the end of the hall and listened at the door. They heard a few quiet smacks! then silence. Mal nodded to Shaw, and everyone slipped around the corner and down another short corridor back to the main room of the warehouse. As they piled into the room, they came to a sliding stop, effectively bumping into each other as they stared in shock at what they saw.

&&&&&&&

Zoe, Inara, Kaylee, and River turned down the narrow street, Zoe looking around warily. "You sure this is the place, l'il one?"

"Positive," replied River. "I can feel them." They followed her down the side of the long warehouse-looking building and stopped at a non-descript door. Inara stepped forward, turning to appraise each of them. She smiled.

"You all look wonderful," she sighed.

"Great!" Kaylee said. "Now let's go get some booty! I mean, kick some booty!"

Zoe grimaced and adjusted her top uncomfortably. "Kaylee, you just hold back like we discussed."

"Aw, don't worry Zo. I'm electronics, right? I know I'm to go for the lightweight geek."

"River, you okay?" River had had her head tilted to the side as she listened for their men. She righted it with a smile.

"Fine. They are here. They are currently formulating an escape plan." She grinned.

"Well, at the rate they're going we'll have them out before they finish coming up with one. Men!" Inara snorted, in a very unladylike manner. Zoe grinned and shook her head at her.

"What?" Inara demanded.

"Nothing, I just think that maybe we're finally rubbing off on you, that's all."

Inara shook her head ruefully. "Well please tell me I've limited it to the women on the ship." Everyone giggled.

"Okay," Inara tried again. "we ready, Ladies?" A chorus of "yes!", "you betcha!" and "yup! greeted her. She turned to knock resolutely on the door.

&&&&&&&

The young uniformed guard was clearly confused, and Inara was enjoying every moment of it. This was a large part of her training, manipulating people. Sure, it used to be manipulating to make them feel better, but wasn't that what she was doing here? For a couple of minutes, this man was going to feel better, because of her. He would feel worthy, important, special, thinking that a Companion was here for him.

"Ah, ma'am, I really think you have the wrong address…"

"Nonsense young man. Are there not several Alliance officers here? We were expressly requested to arrive at the top of the hour. You wouldn't want us to be late for your commander, now would you?" Inara smiled as only she could, in that way that still set even Mal to spinning. The guard swallowed heavily.

"Yes, ma'am, well, maybe you could wait here while I go check?" he started to back through the door, pulling it shut behind him. Inara stepped forward quickly, grabbing the edge of the door with one hand and placing her left foot out to prevent the door from closing. Zoe jumped right in behind her.

"Young man, I, we, have a reputation to uphold, and I will not have it be known that myself and my girls were late for an appointment!" And with that pronouncement, Inara easily pushed passed the confused and startled young man, closely followed by Zoe and River. Kaylee paused just inside the doorway, flipped her hair over her satin clad shoulder, and giggled at the soldier.

"Hey there, handsome, what's yer name?" she cooed at him. The guard stuttered some unintelligible sounds.

"Manny! what the hell's going on out there?! Oh, hey, ah, Ladies, ah, what's going on?" A second guard had stalked into the room only to be greeted by a sight he had only ever seen before in his dreams. And even there it had never looked so good.

In front of him, spread out in a semi-circle, were four of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. All obviously Companions; that could be assumed just from what they were wearing. The curly-haired brunette in front of him was dressed, if that word could be used with such a lack of clothing, in a red-trimmed, gold silk halter top with a matching skirt that looked slit almost to the top of her thigh. The tall, dark-skinned one was wearing a satin green wrap that looked like it only had one string holding it on.

The two obviously younger ones were each standing off to opposite sides, the taller of the two with the wavy hair and freckles sporting a blue silk tank and mini skirt set. The long-haired one was simply stunning in a complicated purple number that seemed to reveal and hide skin depending on which way she turned.

'Manny' could not believe his eyes. "Wha, wha?" he managed to stutter out.

The girls smiled, following Inara's lead. She stepped forward.

"Good evening, we're here for an appointment with Lt. Trace and his officers?" Manny's face looked as if it was about to split in half.

"Soldier! What kind of op do you think we're running here?!" A sergeant came stomping into the room, jerking to a halt as he saw the four 'Companions'. "Excuse me, Ladies, I believe you may have the incorrect address. Soldier, show the Ladies out."

Inara swept forward and placed a hand flat on his chest. "I do believe we have an appointment, here. Is there someplace more comfortable we can talk?"

The man could do nothing but stutter. By this time a couple more soldiers had drifted into the room to see what was going on. Zoe glanced over at River as they did a silent head count. River nodded slightly and stepped forward, planting herself between two of the men, Zoe imitating her. Kaylee hung back with the first soldier who had opened the door originally.

Inara swung her arm wide, gesturing to include the other women. "We were hired by your superior as a special reward for a job very well done. She ran one finger down the sergeant's chest. Taking his inaction as approval, the other men moved forward. Their mistake.

River started; in a single swinging arc she took out the two men nearest her. Zoe used a one-two combo to take out her two, while Inara simply turned the finger she was tracing down the sergeant's chest, effectively pricking him with a sedative ring. Another stepped forward with a snarl, but her other ringed hand caught him with a flick of her index finger, and he went down as she jumped back.

Meanwhile Zoe and River had finished off the remaining four, River with an opposite sweeping kick to their heads, while Zoe opted for a gut kick and elbow head-bashing. They looked back to check on Kaylee.

Kaylee was still standing next to the door guard. He had her by the arm, but he didn't look like he was restraining her so much as clinging to her. He was wild-eyed.

Kaylee patted him on the arm. "It's okay, everythin's alright now," she said soothingly.

"Alright?!" he squeaked. "Alright?!"

River's head suddenly snapped around and she quickly stepped forward past Inara just as Lt. Trace himself came striding into the room.

"What the!" he roared, as River gracefully leaped into the air and came down with her left foot slamming his head into the wall. His unconscious body slid down.

There was a loud hiss from their right. As their heads whipped around, Mal stepped into the room followed by Jayne, David, and three other men.

"Nice work, Ladies," Mal commented. David was staring in shock at River. Jayne leered at each of them in turn, then made a beeline for River, grabbing her around the waist and swinging her around. "Um, can you maybe keep this outfit on a l'il while longer?"


	25. Regroup

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 25- Regroup

Inara pressed one perfectly manicured finger to the comm radio behind her ear.

"Wash, tell Simon the chicks have landed and the roosters are intact. That's an a-okay at the trash bin, do you copy?"

Mal looked at her incredulously. "You mean to tell me that _you_ are running this little _rescue_ op?"

Zoe answered first. "Sir, we're all running this _little rescue_ op." She had straightened up and was silently daring the Captain to discredit the women around her.

Mal shuffled slightly; he knew that look and decided to back off. "Thank you, Ladies; I can see this was an efficient and well-run operation." He smiled widely at Inara, hoping to weasel his way back into her good graces.

Inara, to her credit, was fully aware that the man that could set her on fire could also, well, set her afire when it came to him saying exactly the wrong thing. So she did what any strong, self-aware woman does when her chosen one says something stupid; she let it go.

"Thank you, Mal. We couldn't have done it without River's… special talents." By then she had realized there were three men she did not know behind Mal; however he seemed at ease with them, so while she relaxed her guard, there was no point in giving away vital information.

The medium height, brown-haired one stepped forward. "Ma'am, Lt. Jay Shaw, and these are two of my men. I think we've met your Captain's approval. Jus' saying as I see you lovely women seem to have several power right hooks between you." He smiled, took her hand gently, and then stepped back without kissing it. He knew within seconds of stepping in that room that this was the Captain's woman (or maybe the other way 'round, he mused) and that being polite and then backing off immediately was probably the best option.

"Lieutenant," Inara replied gracefully. "This is Zoe Washburne, the Captain's First Mate, Kaylee there is our Chief Technical Officer, and River is…"

Inara looked around. Kaylee was preening at her new fancy title, and River and Jayne were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are those two?!" demanded Mal. "If they're off in some side room…" He halted as both River and Jayne walked back into the room.

"Captain," River began, "your presumption that we would be off in some corner fooling around while on a job, well, it just sickens me." She turned on the fully pout-driven face.

"Yeah," Jayne joined in. "Just sick that ya think we aren't on the job all pro-fessional-like." He twisted his mouth in an attempt to project his own form of pompous face.

Mal tried not to stutter. "Okay, well, where were you two just now?"

"Looking for the object they took from us," River replied.

"And?" Mal, David, and Shaw all asked impatiently.

"_And_, it's not here." Collective groans resounded through the warehouse. "But I think I do know where it is."

"And that would be, l'il one?" Zoe coaxed.

"Not too far, but more heavily guarded than here. Jayne and I searched what passed for their office here and I was able to break into their computer files. There is a toy company in the next town over that specializes in modeled home animatronic companionable mammals."

"What??"

"Robot pets. Jeez Mal, get with it." Jayne shook his head, as if River had not had to explain to him what they were two minutes earlier. Mal glared at him while Kaylee giggled.

The Captain sighed and looked to Shaw. "Looks like we're gonna need to reconnoiter on this op, Lieutenant."

Shaw nodded thoughtfully as Mal turned back to his crew. "Okay, River, let's get you, Kaylee, and Kaylee's new friend there back in that office and gather up any additional intel you can. Jayne, Zoe, how's about we take a quick little inventory of weaponry here…" One of the men on the floor near Mal's feet started to groan. Mal leaned over to whack him out again. "Let's make this quick people. I want to be out that door and back toward friendly territory in five."

&&&&&&&

The door guard had no useful information; Jayne had wanted to 'interrogate' him, but Kaylee wrapped an arm around the shuddering soldier's shoulders and led him into the back office River and Jayne had gone to earlier.

River was bent over the keyboard when they arrived. "Anything more?" asked Kaylee hopefully.

"Not much. I've pinned down the location, but we're going to need to do some recon, there's no specs here." She sat back, disappointed. She looked over at the soldier standing with Kaylee. "Anything you want to tell me?"

He shifted nervously. "Miss, I would tell you anything you want to know if I knew anything. I was shipped here, told to guard a door, then you people showed up." He kept glancing back towards the open office door. "Please, Miss, don't hand me off to the big one. He was smiling at me and licking a knife."

River smiled gently. "Don't worry, we'll leave you intact." She turned to Kaylee. "We'll have to knock him out if we're going to leave him here."

Kaylee grimaced as the soldier started to back away. "Well, okay, I guess you're right. You'll have to do it though."

The boy was busy backing towards the door. "Please, Miss, I really don't think I'm cut out for this, maybe I can just pretend that you knocked me out?"

River shook her head and began to walk over to him. "Sorry, but one minute under interrogation when your commander wakes up and you'll be found out and in big trouble for not trying hard enough to stop us. No, it's better for you this way." She stepped closer.

"Maybe you can just tie me up?" he asked hopefully. He hadn't seen Jayne approach from behind.

"Tie you up?!" he roared. "Why you sneaky, kinky l'il bastard, tryin' to get with my girl…" he let loose a single hand chop to the back of the kid's neck, effectively knocking him out.

Kaylee looked to River. "Well that went well."

&&&&&&&

Everyone had gathered up by the door where it had all gone wrong for the guys initially. Mal looked over his group to do a quick head count.

"Where's the l'il guy?" he asked River.

"We took care of him," she said simply. David shuddered at the implication. He hadn't looked River in the eye since their rescue; but he hadn't let her out of his peripheral vision either. He just didn't know what to make of what he had seen. He knew she had been tampered with, after all she had spoken of it to him back when they were hanging out together. But to see the results in action, to see the fighting machine the Alliance had created, was something else entirely. Furthermore, David had a sneaking suspicion that he had only seen a small glimpse of her capabilities. He wasn't sure how to feel towards her. While he was grateful for the rescue, he was also scared at what she was capable of. He couldn't stop glancing sideways at her.

River, for her part, was doing her best to push away David's conflicting emotions for the moment. Time later to deal with her friend's feelings. She felt a tinge of sadness as she realized that he wasn't sure he shouldn't be afraid of her.

She looked to Jayne. He had scooped up some of the better sidearms from the soldiers the women had knocked out and was comparing them to decide which ones he wanted to keep before the Captain repossessed the rest. He felt her watching him and looked up. Seeing her face he quickly stepped over to her.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" he said quietly, not wanting to draw any attention to River until he knew what was going on, and also not wanting anyone to hear his endearment. When her look deepened, he quickly placed the weapons onto the floor beside them and grasped her forearms in his giant hands. She looked so sad, and he realized that it actually hurt him to see her look like this. She sighed and looked down at her hands.

"Tell me, tell me what's wrong," he implored. Mal and the others hadn't noticed them yet, they were discussing the best route back to the ship.

River was trying not to start sniffling. "I can't help it, it's not my fault."

"What? Baby, girl, what's wrong?" Jayne implored.

"It's not my fault, it's what they made me," she continued to sniffle and actually began to shake a little. She looked forlornly into Jayne's eyes. "Are you scared?" she whispered.

Jayne heard a shuffle and cough close by; he glanced over and saw David seemingly concentrating hard on what the Captain was saying. He knew immediately what River's problem was. David had seen her abilities for the first time and was freaked out. River may have decided to be with Jayne, but he knew she still considered David a friend and was upset at his reaction. Damn him for hurting her.

Jayne stood back up and guided River further away from the group. He pulled her chin up with one hand and let the other one rest lightly on her hip.

"Listen, Princess. I am not afraid of you. I know what was done to ya was wrong. I also know that ya have done a wonderful job dealing with it. Ya only use ya'r 'bilities now to help us, ya'r family. I'ma li'l regretful that us guys didn't get ourselves outta this pickle a li'l faster, but I'm grateful that ya came to get us. I'm proud of ya and everythin' ya can do, ev'rythin' ya're capable of." He bent down on one knee and leaned in to touch his nose against hers as he looked deeply into her eyes.

"I love ya 'zactly the way ya are."

River's eyes grew even bigger and rounder if that were possible. He loved her? She threw her arms around him and squeezed as tightly as she could. All she could feel off him was warmth. Now she knew she had everything she could possibly want.


	26. Reconnoitering

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 26- Reconnoitering

Mal placed one hand on the door; they needed to get out of there. He glanced around to make sure everyone was accounted for. Jayne and River had moved back to the outskirts of the group. No one had noticed her upset moments ago. And they wouldn't have been able to guess now that she had been upset from the way she was currently beaming. Jayne's hand rubbed large, slow circles on her back as she leaned into him.

The Captain turned back to the door and reached for the handle. Just then the door whipped open of its own accord, nearly knocking Mal over. He jumped back as Zoe and Jayne jumped forward to meet this new threat.

Within seconds there were a half dozen men with automatic rifles lined up inside the doorway, yelling for everyone to put their weapons down and raise their hands. Mal quickly nodded at his crew to comply as he needed to assess this new complication without getting anyone hurt. The only positive thing he noticed immediately was that these men were not wearing Alliance uniforms. Then Lt. Shaw stepped forward.

"Sergeant, nice of you to show up." He wound his way through Serenity's crew to grasp the hand of the closest man. He waved towards the others. "You can lower your weapons, they're with me, us," he explained.

The Sergent grinned and slung his weapon over his shoulder. "Lt. Shaw, I received word that the meet didn't quite go as planned."

Shaw grinned back. "Well, I'd say it went about halfway. We met our contacts," he nodded to Mal and the others, "but we need to regain the key to the palace, so to speak."

Mal stepped in. "Alright, nows we got ourselves a little backup, let's get goin'."

After a quick check, everyone filed outside. There was no one else to be seen. They quickly and quietly made their way down several side streets in the direction of the docks, until Lt. Shaw held a hand up.

"We turn here." He pointed down an alley leading away from where they had left Serenity.

The entire crew balked. "My crew and I are going back to our ship," Mal announced in his 'don't mess with me' voice. Shaw smiled back.

"No tricks, Captain. My Sergeant has informed me that your crew has previously been in contact with them, and it was decided for safety reasons to move the ship out of portside where it could have been locked down by the Alliance long before you made it back. Your pilot was given a location near a safehouse we have on the outskirts. We should hurry before it's discovered."

Mal looked to River who nodded imperceptibly; the lieutenant was telling the truth. Inara stepped over and laid a hand on his arm. "We had agreed that Wash would move the ship if it was warranted," she said softly. She didn't want him to get upset, thinking that they had taken over his baby. "All right, let's go," he acquiesced.

They wound their way through alleys for about another quarter mile when an old, unused plaza opened up in front of them. Serenity was parked beyond in what looked to be a grassy commons.

"Captain," Lt. Shaw said, "I believe this is where my company here parts ways with you for now. I'd like to ask permission to come aboard so we can figure this thing out while my men go scout out the repercussions of today's little escapade."

Mal nodded. "Permission granted." He turned to the Sergeant. "Thank you Sergeant." The man saluted and trotted off with his men.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they walked up the ramp and into their home. Simon came charging into the cargo bay.

"Everyone okay?" despite that Inara had commed him from the warehouse, he knew that with this crew anything could have happened between there and the ship. He caught sight of River's red-rimmed eyes.

"Mei-mei? What happened? Where are you hurt?" Simon was opening his bag as he rushed over to her. The rest of the crew stopped short to look at them. They thought they had gotten through without a scrape, but River did look a little weary.

"Simon, I'm fine," she pushed her brother away. "The Captain wants to have a meeting in the mess to determine next moves." She tried to walk away from Simon.

"But River," Simon tried again. Jayne laid a hand gently on Simon's arm.

"She's okay, she's just tired, Doc. We all are."

Simon looked for a moment like he was going to be stubborn and pursue the issue, but for once backed down. He knew that Jayne cared about her as much as he did, and if anything were really wrong Jayne would bring her to Simon's attention.

As they all turned towards the mess though, Jayne looked back to David and scowled. David shrunk back, afraid Jayne was going to hit him. Jayne thought that maybe he should- making his girl feel bad was just as bad as making a play for her, wasn't it? As soon as this whole mess was over…

&&&&&&&

"Well, let's get this meeting started. First off, I'd like to thank and commend the Ladies of Serenity for doing a bang-up job of assisting our escape." Inara had been smiling right up until Mal had said 'assisting', but again, decided to let it go. Not so with Kaylee.

"Assistin'! You guys would never 'a gotten out of there…" both Zoe and Inara laid a hand on each of Kaylee's arms.

"Dear," Zoe began, "trust me, it's not worth it."

"We know what we did," Inara added, smiling serenely.

"Well I certainly 'preciate it," Jayne nodded sagely. Kaylee beamed at him, River patted his arm in approval, and Mal glared at him.

"Okay, Jayne, if you're done kissin' ass for now, let's get on with it?" All the women glared at Mal. "What?"

Wash burst in through the mess doorway brandishing some printouts. "Ah, hey, everyone's here, great. No injuries?" he looked to Simon.

"No, no, they're all right, this time." Mal glared at Simon.

"Could we please get on with this?!"

"Oh, here we go," Wash slapped the printouts down on the table. "We have a location, thanks to River, and I think we have an approach, but…" he hesitated.

"What?" Mal pushed.

"Well, what we don't have, and can't seem to get, are blueprints of the building or even an inkling of where a secure area in the building is. Apparently this facility was built recently and no specs have been listed with the local authorities. We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, Captain."

"Recon," said Zoe.

"Aaaww," grumbled Jayne.

"Problem, Jayne?"

"Yeah, can I sit this one out? I hate recon, it's boring."

"Alright, Jayne's volunteered for first shift, anyone else?" Mal looked around grinning. Jayne grunted and slid down in his seat. River patted his arm.

"Captain, I'll go with Jayne," she said.

"Right. Okay people, the rest of you pair up, Wash, you and River plan out our route. Let's go."

&&&&&&&

Jayne and River had been tucked into some scraggly bushes halfway up the hillside overlooking the compound for about four hours when River jerked her arm, pointing.

"See?"

"Yeah, that's the second time that guy's come out right after that light in the corner office goes out. That woman who left next to him the first time was a fluke."

"Right next to where the sensor spiked," River commented. "That's our 'in'."

"Let's get back ta the ship and put this thing together." Jayne started snaking his way backwards through the brush on his elbows.

&&&&&&&

"So, distractions here, and here," Mal pointed, leaning over Wash's printout, newly detailed with Jayne's and River's recon. "Then she," he pointed over in the direction of Inara and Kaylee, "accesses this through here," Mal tapped the map again, "and then they," he gestured across the table again, "backup here. Any questions?"

Nods of 'no' surrounded the mess table. "Well, then," Mal added, "I think some of us had better go get dressed. It's going to be a long night, people. Let's be sharp."


	27. The Big Job Part 1 Distractions

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch 27- The Big Job- Part 1- Distractions

Mal handed Kaylee the binoculars. "Here, let me know when they're in."

Kaylee squinted through the tinted lenses and wriggled around to get more comfortable. She and the Captain had elbowed their way into the same bushes Jayne and River had been in several hours earlier.

"Ooh! I see them," she squealed suddenly.

Down below, Inara and a business casual-clad Jayne had pulled up in an expensive coup, courtesy Lt. Jay Shaw and his Independent 'repossessors'. Mal was originally going to be the inside guy, but when Jay's contact had shown up with the vehicle, the 'scientist' appropriate clothing he had brought had been too big for anyone but Jayne. Apparently the guy's cousin was also nearsighted; Jayne now sported a pair of glasses to match his borrowed ident card. Jayne glanced around and tapped his ear once before following Inara up the walkway to the front door.

"Alright, let's go," Mal told Kaylee. They wriggled backwards over the crest of the hill and stood up, quickly shucking their pale brown outerwear to reveal bright orange jumpsuits.

"Why do people always pick these ugly things as uniforms?" the Captain grumbled.

"Well I think they're comfortable, and the color is so bright and pretty!" exclaimed Kaylee.

"Well they certainly are bright," agreed Mal. They continued to skid down the backside of the hill, grabbed a couple of 'implements of destruction' as Kaylee called them, and then slipped around into the parking lot below, casually swinging their rakes here and there as they passed little islands of green in the lot. They had picked a spot to enter where there was a slight lapse in the crossover of the building's cameras. Only River had noticed it when they were spec-ing out the premises. Mal and Kaylee continued to rake and move closer to the building.

Inara confidently entered the lobby and paused, surveying her surroundings. Upon apparently just noticing the security guard's desk, she straightened up and stalked over. Jayne entered a few seconds behind her, crossing the lobby and acting for all the world as if he worked here everyday. Inara reached the front desk before Jayne reached the automatic entry kiosk.

"I'll need to speak to the property manager straightaway," she began with a smile.

The guard, a portly, middle-aged gentleman, never looked up. "So sorry, he's just left for the day." He turned the page of his newspaper and waved a hand in the direction of the door. "You can just leave the way you came."

Inara was incensed. Playing a part or not, this was no way to treat a Companion. She reared up to her full five foot, seven and one-quarter inch height.

"Do you know who I am?"

The guard sighed and made a show of putting down his paper. He sat back, crossed his arms, and gave Inara his full, albeit disgusted, attention.

Meanwhile, Jayne had made it to his first goal without being questioned. He ran the ident card through the slider, but instead of the turnstile releasing, the machine emitted a loud beep. Damn.

Inara tensed at the sound, but did not look away from the guard. "I _said_, I need to speak to the property manager, now."

The guard leaned slightly forward. "And _I _said that he's gone for the day. Can I help you with something?"

A few feet away, Jayne hesitated, then decided to go for broke. He slid the card through again and was rewarded with a comforting 'click' and the turnstile released. He went through and glanced back at Inara through his peripheral vision. She drummed her fingers on the counter, a sign to the Captain via comm that Jayne had made it through the first hurdle. The guard had never even glanced at Jayne. Huh. Who would have thought he would have passed for 'science guy'?

It was Inara's turn to lean slightly forward on the counter. She gave Mr. Portly Security Guard an up-and-down appraising look. "Well, maybe you can help me after all…"

&&&&&&&

Mal heard Inara's fingers drum through his comm. "Wash, Zo, Jayne's passed number one."

"Roger, Captain. We're moving into position now." Zoe looked to her husband. "Alright, husband, remember, anything goes south, you grab Kaylee and head back to the ship."

Wash saluted her. "Yes, Captain Wife, absolutely, gotcha, command coming in a-okay." Zoe shook her head but could not hide her smile as she started up the van the Independents had loaned them and drove towards the pickup point.

&&&&&&&

Poor Inara, Jayne thought to himself as he followed the corridors according to the directions River and Wash had worked out. Trying to distract that guy with a straight face, well, she deserved a medal for that. Ugh. He came to another locked door and slid the electronic card through again. It was supposed to be coded for the first three security levels; the last door would be the tricky one.

Another left, right, left, there. Jayne slid his card through and entered a short hallway with only three doors. He walked passed the first two and paused at the third. This was the tricky one. He took a small device out of his pocket and held it up to the box attached to the door over the knob. With his free hand he tapped the comm in his ear.

"River, I'm here."

"Reading you clear, Big Bear," she came back. Jayne sighed.

"I thought we decided against the cute secret spy nicknames?" he whined.

"You decided against them. You were overruled. Hold still."

Jayne held the device still over the doorknob and internally continued to whine against the whole spy nickname game that his girl, Kaylee, and that silly Wash had insisted upon. Just weren't professional, playin' games while doin' a serious job.

River's fingers flew over the cockpit's keyboard, reading and decoding sequences faster than David could read them. The Captain had decided that he should stay onboard and assist River with any problems that arose. At present he was standing behind her and off to one side, watching her work and trying to reconcile in his head the pretty, smart young woman he was seeing now with the deadly grace he had seen earlier.

"Try now," she told Jayne. She gritted her teeth, trying to keep David's feelings shut out. She didn't need the distraction while working.

Back in the building, Jayne leaned forward toward the door lock. It was a voice recognition synchronizer, and they only had three chances to get this right before causing a total lockdown of the facility. He nervously cleared his throat.

"Ah, my name is McGroyne. Patrick McGroyne. My voice is my passport, admit me." The doorlock beeped once, then nothing.

Shit, Jayne thought. He tried again. "My name is Pat McGroyne. My voice is my passport, admit me." Still nothing. Wait, there was something, a muffled sound coming over the comm. Was that laughter?

In a non-descript van at the top of a hillock overlooking the complex, Wash had nearly slid off the seat onto the floor, laughing while water poured out of his eyes. Zoe was glaring at him from the driver's seat.

"Jayne, hold up. I think I found the glitch," Zoe called out over the comm. She leaned toward Wash and punched his arm, solidly.

"Ouch! Honeeeey, that hurt!" he whined.

"This is not funny, husband-soon-to-be-not. Jayne only has one more shot at this, then he's locked in behind multiple layers of security!"

Wash tapped his comm, not taking his eyes off his wife. "Jayne, the name you need to be using is Paul McGrady."

"_You gave him the wrong name_!" Mal screamed into everyone's ears.

"Ow! Captain, it's okay," Kaylee interjected. She was staring down at her rake trying not to giggle in her Captain's ear. "Jayne, it's okay, don't panic."

"Don't panic?!" Jayne whisper-yelled. "I'ma gonna get nabbed cause 'a stupid joke!"

"No, no, it really is okay," River's voice piped into his ear. "I re-rigged the system to give you five attempts instead of three." She took another deep breath, trying not to be heard laughing over the wire. Jayne was not fooled, however.

"_You_ were in on this too?!"

"Shh, it's okay, sweetie. Try again."

Mal was not done. He was raking so hard he was digging holes into the lawn. "Great, so I'm surrounded by geniuses who think we're here to have fun. You think we can all get back to the job here?!"

Back inside, Jayne, mumbling incoherently about sick jokes and revenge, leaned forward again. "My name is Paul McGrady. My voice is my passport, admit me." He held his breath. There was a barely audible click and the small light on the lockbox turned from red to green.

He sighed heavily, turned the doorknob easily, and peeked inside the room. There was no one in the drab, unremarkable office. He glanced back down the hall to double-check that he was alone, and slipped inside the room quietly closing the door behind him. He tapped his earpiece, "I'm in," then went quiet as he looked around the office. There were half-built animal robot models, but no small black boxes, and nothing in the desk drawers either. He peered a little closer at one of the models and shuddered when he realized that it looked like some sort of evil experiment; the silver creation had a cat's head on a lizard's body. He turned to the painting on the wall.

"The old fashioned ways never die," he mumbled. He placed a hand on either side of the painting and wiggled it slightly. One side came off the wall with a quiet 'pop!' and he swung it out perpendicular from the wall. Sure enough, there was a wall safe. He grabbed the second button of his shirt front and lifted it upward.

"You reading this, Riv?"

Back on the bridge, River peered into the small console screen. "Yes, a standard tumbler sequencer?"

"Prolly." Jayne placed his ear flush to the wall safe and started spinning the dial slowly, confidently.

"How we doin' people?" Mal's voice came across as worried, tense. By now he had pretty much destroyed the work of probably several groundskeepers. Kaylee was trying not to giggle as he proceeded to dig another hole in some mulch as he awaited an answer.

"Almost there, Cap'n," Jayne quietly replied. One more slow swirl to the right, then 'click', and with a turn of the lever the safe door popped open with a small whoosh of air.

As Jayne went to pull the safe door the rest of the way open, there was a sudden beep and click behind him, and the doorknob to the office started to turn. Jayne jumped.

"Cap'n!" he whispered. "ya send some'un in to me?"

"No," Mal whispered back. "We're all out here, 'cept Inara, she's still in the lobby, I can see her from here. What's wrong?"

Shit. "Goin' silent, Cap'n." Jayne quickly shut the safe door and swung the painting back flush to the wall as the office door opened and a tall blonde woman in a black slinky dress slipped into the office. She quickly shut the door and spun around to face Jayne.

"You are Professor Doctor McGrady?"

"Ah, ah, yes. That's me. Professor. And Doctor. Oh, and McGrady too. Ah, I think ya're in the wrong place, lady." Jayne stuttered and began to take steps backwards as she smiled seductively and started to saunter up to him.

"Oh, no, Herr Doctor. I'm in exactly the right place." She stepped right up to his chest, squishing one boob right into the button camera River had placed on him earlier.

"I understand it is your birthday today, Professor Doctor? You have some friends who think very highly of you, to have hired me and found a way to sneak me in here. We will have some fun working verrrry hard in your office, no?"

Jayne was backed up against the wall by now, the woman leaning into him along the length of his body. She purred and slipped her hand southwards. Jayne squeaked, but not loud enough to miss the soft hiss in his earpiece. River.


	28. The Big Job Part 2 To the Job, Sir

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 28- The Big Job- Part 2- To the Job, Sir

"Jayne! Jayne! What the hell is going on!" Mal was irate. What was his hired gun doing, flirting with some floosy in the middle of a job, and with his girlfriend on the other end of the wire? Another hole started forming at the end of his rake.

Jayne, for his part, _was_ trying to do his job. Furthermore, he was also trying to save his relationship with River. He gathered his thoughts northward again, grabbed the escort's shoulders, and pushed. Hard. She stumbled backwards, trying to catch her balance by grabbing at the desk before she hit the floor. The animal model-in-progress went flying across the room, ricocheted off the wall, and hit the floor in pieces. A small, black box tumbled out of the framework and came to a stop in the middle of the floor.

River, who had ripped off her comm and started to leave the bridge when she heard Jayne's squeak, had her attention pulled back to the viewscreen when she heard the loud screeching of the irate falling woman. And with Jayne's body turned toward the center of the room, she saw it. She shoved what was supposed to be David's comforting arm out of her way and jumped back into the pilot's seat and grabbed her comm.

"There! Jayne, on the floor! It's not in the safe!"

Jayne looked toward the wrecked animal model and, eyes widening, leaped over the woman to grab at the box. But the escort, incensed at being thrown off by a mere 'scientist', reach up and swatted at Jayne's trailing ankle, effectively throwing off his balance and bringing him down. He landed with a heavy grunt broadsides, his arm reaching out for the box.

With his momentum thrown, his hand smacked the Key away from him and off the leg of the desk. Hard enough that a crack appeared in the casing.

"Li shu tian teng!"

"You bastard!" the woman screeched. Jayne tried to gather himself and hush her at the same time.

"Look, Lady, I'm sure yer real nice and all, but, ah, I have a deadline to meet, and, ah, I'm real sorry and all, but I'ma not gonna be able to accommodate ya, so maybe ya need to be on yer way."

Back on Serenity's bridge, River was trying very hard to keep her mind on the job, but it was getting harder now that the man had opened his mouth. She was used to hearing Simon say stupid things to Kaylee, but she had not heard the same coming from Jayne before. 'Real nice'?? Where the hell did he get off telling that whore that she was 'real nice'?!

Behind her, David kept shifting forward and backward with little steps. He wanted to console River over Jayne's behavior, but didn't want to die in the process. Also, from what he could tell, he honestly thought Jayne hadn't done anything wrong. It wasn't like he had invited the whore along on the job.

River's head whipped around as if possessed. "STAY out of this," she hissed eerily. David shifted back a step and stayed.

Jayne had managed to right himself and grab the box. He carefully slid it into the pocket of his lab coat and stepped over to the escort. He reached down as she was crawling to her feet and tried to help her, but she swatted his hand away.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" she snapped. "You're no scientist. I would know, I've had a few, they have money after all. And I have never met one with such an uneducated, rim-worlder accent. I'm calling security."

"Wait a sec- won't you get in trouble for breaking in here?"

"Breaking in? Honey, the only thing that I may have 'broken in' on my way in would be the freight entrance guard." She sniffed haughtily and reached for the door.

Jayne said a silent prayer that his Ma would never find out what he was about to do to a woman, but he had no choice. Just as she went to grab the doorknob, he stepped up behind her raising his fist to knock her out.

"Jayne, don't!" River's voice echoed in his ear. She had just noticed a guard patrol coming down the hall. "Security alert, use the woman to extricate yourself."

"Got it," he answered.

"Who are you talking to?" demanded the woman.

Jayne smiled knowingly. "A real woman," he said simply.

Up on Serenity's bridge, River smiled shyly to herself.

&&&&&&&

The comm in Zoe's ear clicked.

"Zoe? Zoe, it's Simon. Ah, ten-four?"

Zoe sighed as Wash covered his mouth in a guffaw. "Yes, Simon, I'm here, working. What do you need?"

"Ah, yeah, ten-four, I just wanted to check in with you and see if everyone's okay so far."

"So far, so good," Wash interrupted. "Ten-four, little buddy." He clicked his comm off and commenced giggling and sliding down in his seat. Zoe tried to glare at him, but ended up grinning at his antics and Simon's inexperienced communication. Which was exactly the moment the Alliance guards chose to finish sneaking up along the side of the van.

Zoe saw the first one in Wash's side view mirror- and quickly elbowed the one on her side before she even finished turning around. She jumped out to finish him off and came face to face with the barrel end of a rifle held by another.

Wash wasn't so lucky. He gasped and jumped as Zoe hit her attacker, then whipped right to see if anyone was on his side, to be met with a misted spray in his face. He gagged and coughed as he twisted in his seat to get away, eyes screwed tightly shut.

The guard grabbed Wash by the collar and dragged him out of the van, letting him fall to the ground. On his hands and knees he caught his breath, shook his head. Then he opened his eyes.

"Zoe?! Zo, you okay? Where are you?!"

"Right here, honey. Don't panic, everything will be okay."

"Get over there!" the guard roughly shoved Zoe around the van to stand beside her husband.

"Zo! Where are you?" Wash was whipping his head from side to side wildly.

"I'm standing right next to you. Wash? What's wrong? Wash!"

Wash jerked his head in the direction of Zoe's voice. His eyes were wide open, but—

"Zo, I can't see. I can't see gorram thing."

&&&&&&&

Jayne waited for River's signal as the guards continued to approach. As they passed the door chatting jovially, the escort managed to emit a loud squeak despite Jayne's hand over her mouth. The chatting outside stopped.

"They've stopped and are looking back," River whispered into Jayne's ear.

Sure enough, the doorknob started to turn. The woman struggled against Jayne's large hand wrapped around her wrists behind her, but he hung on. One more moment, and…

Bam! The door swung open quickly and smacked the wall. Element of surprise or not, it was the guards who were surprised to immediately get a faceful of female thrust into them. Everyone fell/was shoved back into the hall as Jayne ramrodded his way through. He gave one final, forceful shove to the right and took off left, sprinting back down the way he had come. Neither one of the guards managed to clear the woman off of them in time to get off a shot. And by the time she was unceremoniously shoved aside, they were already behind in the chase. Jayne may have been a big guy, but he could sprint come crunch time.

One of the security guards grabbed his radio to call ahead but was met with static. "Huang ce hua!!"

Back on the bridge, River and David laughed and high-fived each other. Just because they had been ordered to stay onboard didn't mean they couldn't participate in the fun.

Jayne took several turns back towards the main entrance hoping that Inara was still working her wiles on the front desk guards. As he rounded another corner he suddenly came to a skidding stop. In the middle of the hallway in front of him sat a small, fuzzy, long-haired gray cat. It looked up at him with golden eyes and meowed a friendly hello. The feline seemed out of place in an office building, but as Jayne could hear some sounds of pursuit he decided he didn't have any more time to waste contemplating the incongruousness of soft warm fur in a linoleum covered world.

As he stepped forward to resume his escape, however, he heard the kitty emit another sound. A not-so-pleasant one. Rather resembling the sound a 'possum might make while giving birth to a twelve point buck.

Jayne hesitated and started to move forward and sideways, skirting the little itty bitty kitty, when its eyes started to glow. He hesitated again, then heard the pitter-patter of more feet. From around the corner came several more similar looking felines, pausing behind the first one. And then a few more.

And then a few more.

Jayne could almost swear they were forming up behind the one who had initially greeted him. He started to back up.

"Oh, I've got a bad feeling about this."

Translations:

Li shu tian teng!: Bunny licking flying dragons!

Huang ce hua!: Bloody plot!


	29. The Big Job Part 3 Run Away, Run Away

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 29- The Big Job- Part 3- Run Away, Run Away

"River?" Jayne's voice wavered slightly. "You seein' this?"

"Yes." She sounded puzzled.

"So…this is a robot pet-makin' company right? They _look_ like pets."

"Yes."

"Then why am I feelin' the sudden urge to run away?"

"I do not know. Why are their eyes glowing, Jayne?"

"Whose eyes are glowin'?" Mal interjected.

"The kitties in the hallway with Jayne."

"Gorramit, Jayne, would you stop messing around and get back to work!"

The first and foremost feline suddenly stood, growled loudly, and began stalking forward, the rest of the pack following. Jayne started to pedal backwards, fast. The cat pack broke into a trot. Jayne broke into a run.

"River! Get me out of this!"

River's hands flew over the console bringing up as much of the building's schematics as they had been able to deduce. "Take your next right!"

Jayne was flying now; the growls, screeches, and what could only be described as grumbles and banshee wails coming from behind him were unbelievably motivating. He skidded around the corner, his hand nearly peeling the paint from the wall in an effort to remain upright. As he barreled down the next hall he gave up all pretense of sneaking around.

"Riv! A little help here!"

"Next left! Then left again!" River was trying to get him closer to an outside wall, but their knowledge of the layout was limited.

"There," David pointed. River nodded.

"Wash, Zoe, get ready. Big Bear is hot to trot."

"Enough with the spy games!" Jayne screeched. A particularly fast feline had caught up to Jayne and had locked its vice-like robot jaws into his calf. Jayne was forced to alternate between running and hopping, shaking his leg as if enduring electroshock therapy, trying to get the cat off.

"What the hell is goin' on now?!" Mal hollered over the comm.

"Jayne's been compromised, Captain. Albatross and Scooter are guiding him out now."

"Scooter?! Who the hell is Scooter?!"

"That's what I'd like to know," scowled David. River giggled.

"That's thirty six," commented Kaylee.

"Thirty-six? Thirty-six what?"

"Holes you've dug, Cap'n. Yer leaving an awful mess for those groundskeepers tomorrow."

Mal glared at her. "Zoe! We got ourselves a situation here!" No answer.

"Zoe! Zo!" No answer. Go se.

"Alright, people, we need to pull together here, we're two men down and Jayne's apparently being hunted by 'pets gone wild'. Albatross, what's his position?"

"Northeast corner progressing eighteen kilometers per hour."

"I'm doin' at least twenty!"

"Wow, Jayne, ya really movin'!" encouraged Kaylee.

Mal scowled. "Quiet! Inara, drum your fingers if you can hear me." Fingers drummed in everyone's ears.

"Alright, Jayne's in a pickle. I need you to extricate yourself immediately and see if you can drive around and pick him up on the other side of this place."

"Other side of where! Cap'n, I don't e'en see any windows, and I'ma gettin' eatin' alive!!" Jayne screamed.

"Jayne, keep moving north," River supplied. "You'll come to an intersection, take a right, go down the stairs, and through a back hall. There should be an exit door at the end."

"Got it!" he screeched. He skidded around a corner, managing to swing the clinging robot feline into the wall with a resounding smack! It fell away from his leg in pieces. He started to hot-foot it down the stairs when he realized that he suddenly didn't hear anything.

He hit the bottom of the stairwell and risked a second to take a look back. And was stunned. The cat pack had stopped at the top of the stairs and had quite literally sat down. They stared at Jayne, silent, eyes glowing, tails swishing, but no forward movement. Huh.

Catching his breath, Jayne raised his fist toward them. "Ha! Wassa matter, kitties gotta stay inna yard and can't come out and play?!" He turned and limped purposefully down the hall towards the door at the far end.

On the bridge, River turned to David sheepishly. "He's a little traumatized," she said of his behavior.

David smiled. "I can imagine why."

&&&&&&&

Inara suddenly made a show of looking at her watch. "Sorry, sweetie, I really must be going," she purred. She hopped down off the ledge of the counter where she had been swinging her legs back and forth in front of the security guard's appreciative nose.

"What? Wait, where're you going? We was just getting to know each other a little better," the guard whined. Inara had been stalling him by describing, in detail, fertility rites from Earth-That-Was. She smiled back at him over her shoulder and tapped her watch.

"Sorry, Love, I have an appointment I must attend to. It's been lovely conversing with such an erudite gentleman as yourself." She smiled her wiliest grin and swept from the lobby. As soon as the doors slid shut behind her she broke into a run for the coup.

"Mal! I'm out, which way is Jayne?" She slid into the car and slammed the door shut, then nearly slammed her head into the roof of the car as two heads popped up behind her in the back seat. Kaylee and Mal had dropped off their rakes alongside the building seconds before, casually strode over to the car and hopped in the back.

"Hey Inara!" Kaylee cheerfully greeted her.

"You okay?" grilled Mal. Inara nodded.

"Okay, swing around. Albatross, location on our re-possessing rabbit?"

"Two o'clock, Captain. Rabbit is nearing the hutch gate and will soon be free."

"Now wait a gorram minute! I thought I was a bear!" Jayne was incensed at his downsizing.

"Bears don't get chased by cats. It's not Darwinian."

"Dar-what?!"

"Doesn't make sense. Your felicitous felines would not have been a match for a bear, hense you are now a lagamorph."

"Baloney! You should'a seen them feli-, fel- cats!"

"I did. I think that I now no longer want a cat as a pet. Captain, may I have a puppy?"

"L'il one, as amusing as these ramblings are, I think we need to get back to the rescuing part of our evening here."

Inara whipped the car around another corner of the building and hit the brakes hard.

"Ah, Mal, that may be a little harder than we thought," she said, pointing. There was a patrol headed in their direction, no more than a hundred meters off.

"Go se! Inara, back up…" Inara was already whipping backwards around the turn they had just made. She slammed on the brakes again and spun the wheel, spinning the car around. Mal lunged over Kaylee toward the passenger door.

"You and Kaylee head straight back to the ship. Don't stop for anything."

"Wait! What are you going to do?!"

Mal turned around from crawling out of the tiny sportscar and leaned low on the door. "I'm going after Jayne."

"But Mal!..."

"Get goin', Inara. We'll catch up." Mal turned and headed for some shrubbery alongside the wall of the building. Kaylee crawled into the front seat.

"He'll be all right, 'Nara. Can we see how fast this thing'll go?"

&&&&&&&

Jayne approached the door at the end of the hall with a little more confidence now that he was not being chased by ten pound furry monsters. He placed a hand on the bar and pushed, testing to see if it was locked. Surprisingly, it was not. It popped open easily, not even an alarm going off. At least not one he could hear.

Jayne's comm crackled in his ear. "Jayne, Mal here. Hit a patrol. I sent the girls back to the boat and I'm headed your way. Get outside and sit tight."

Jayne nodded approvingly. "Roger that." He hesitated for a moment, glad that the Captain had sent Kaylee and Inara to safety, and appreciative that he wasn't leaving Jayne to fend for himself. All the relationships on the boat had grown over the past couple years, but Jayne wasn't about to start taking that for granted. Time was he had thought that survival meant thinking about yourself first. Now he was of a mind that survival wasn't enough if he couldn't have his family. He hurried to get outside to keep an eye out for Mal; the guy was a patrol magnet.

Jayne exited the building into a small grassy courtyard with an archway about twenty meters off. After ascertaining that no one was around, he let go of the door and started to jog across. He was about halfway when a small movement caught the corner of his eye, then another further up. A soft hissing sound drifted to his ears.

He slowed to a walk and looked around the yard carefully; he still saw no one. Or nothing. Then he felt it.

"What the…!?" he jumped into the air as he felt something brush across the back of his ankle, but when he turned there was nothing there. He started walking forward again, pausing when he heard another hiss. Suddenly, right in front of him, what looked like a King Cobra from Earth-That-Was, reared up. Hood flaring, eyes glowing, it hissed angrily at Jayne.

"Tyen shiao-duh!" he yelped. "This place is nuts! River!"

River clicked into his comm. "Hmm, looks similar to _Ophiophagus hannah_. An interesting choice for security purposes."

"Yeah, well, I'ma l'il sick of interestin' choices happenin' 'round me!"

"Stay still," David tried to help. "Don't move."

"Will it not bite me and go 'way?"

"Not sure, but it's worth a try."

"Not sure! I thought you were supposed to be the second genius on the boat?!"

"As flattering as that is, I'm not really an expert on the elapidae family."

Jayne sighed in distress. "Snakes. _Why_ did it have to be snakes?"

"Oh, of all the…" Mal had stuck his head around the corner of the courtyard entrance, gun drawn.

"I see ya found some new friends?" Two more snakes had approached Jayne from behind and were now rearing up and hissing. He looked pleadingly at his Captain.

"Help?" he said in a voice he hadn't used since he was five. Mal shook his head, glanced behind him to make sure there were no patrols close by, and cocked his pistol in Jayne's direction. Jayne screwed his eyes tight and prayed that Shepard Book was looking down and thinking kindly on him.

"On three," whispered Mal. He started to squeeze the trigger.

"Wait!"

Mal relaxed his finger.

"Do ya mean go on three, or, say one-two-three, then go?"

Mal could not believe they were having this conversation in the middle of animatronic snakes and Alliance patrols. He shook his head and sighed, trying to keep his cool 'cause he knew Jayne was stressed and losing it.

"I'll count to three, and on three you jump to the side, okay?"

Jayne nodded mutely and stared at Mal like he was his own personal savior. Which at the moment was not entirely inaccurate. Mal raised his gun hand once more, aimed, counted, and squeezed. As Jayne leaped right in an arc that would have made a synchronized swimmer proud, little metal snake bits burst and scattered. Mal quickly followed the first shot with two more, creating a miniature fireworks display of reptilian armaments. Jayne landed in a side roll, jumped to his feet and sprinted to the entranceway in case there were more snakes.

"Thanks," he mumbled, looking around warily.

"No problem," Mal replied, swinging his gaze and his gun from side to side himself. He eased back and turned to take a quick check outside the gate. No patrols at the moment. He nodded to Jayne and the two of them slipped out and started making their way back towards the front of the complex.

Translation: Tyen shiao-duh- name of all that's sacred


	30. Big Job Part 4 Flight of the Navigator

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 30- The Big Job- Part 4- Flight of the Navigator

Zoe slid a little closer to her husband. Their hands tied behind their backs, they had been shoved to the back doors of the van they had procured and made to sit on the open tailgate. When one guard had tried to radio in and found his signal jammed, he decided to make his way back down the hill and told the other conscious one he would send for pickup. The third guy, the one Zoe had originally knocked out, was still unconscious on the ground nearby.

Zoe would have been unbelievably annoyed if the guard that had been left with them had been under her command. He was sloppy and lazy, lounging nearby and not keeping a close enough eye on his prisoners to notice that Zoe was now almost turned back to back with her husband and was working on untying his knots.

"Wash, honey," she whispered, "how are you doing?"

"Oh, just great. Zo, I can't see. I mean, it's not completely black, but it is completely fuzzy and gray. Zo, I'm scared."

"You'll be fine, Wash, I promise. The spray will wear off, it's only temporary. Honey, I'm almost through this knot, I'll need you to get mine undone."

"How am I gonna do that? I…"

"Shhh, he's coming over."

The guard was coming towards them, apparently having gotten a signal through as he was speaking to someone.

"Yeah, sure. Consider it done." He started loosening his gun from its holster.

Zoe didn't hesitate. She knew a 'kill' order even without hearing it. The guard was only a few feet away when she hopped off the tailgate of the truck and struck, a forward roundhouse kick to the head, just the way River had shown her in practice. The man dropped like a rock.

"Zoe! Zo! What's going on?!" Wash sounded frantic.

"Zoe! Zo! What's going on?!" Mal called frantically. "You guys alright?!"

"Yes, Sir, we're…"

"Great! Good to hear- how's about you guys come get us out of here!"

Wash had started to scramble backwards into the back of the van. "Honey, I think I'm onboard, but you're gonna have to drive…"

Oof! The second guard had come back up the hill unheard by Zoe and had waited until her attention turned before rushing her. They hit the ground in a heap.

"Wash! Go! Go!" Zoe yelled.

"I'm not leaving without you!"

Zoe rolled as a fist came down beside her head. "I am ordering you to go, husband!" She rolled again and tried to get her leg hooked around her attacker.

Wash had managed to feel his way into the front of the van and had found the steering wheel and the clutch. He turned the key, the van roared to life and he edged it forward a few feet. "Zo!"

Zoe had managed to roll out and away from the guard and had tucked her legs up and through her arms so her tied hands were in front of her. They were currently circling around, testing out each others next move.

"Zoe! We could use, oh, I don't know, a little pickup here!" Mal was sounding a little out of breath.

"Yes Sir, pickup coming your way. What's your position?"

"Front corner. I can see the van from here, you're out of cover."

"I'm a little busy, Sir. You're going to have to guide Wash down." Wash started swearing.

"What're ya talking 'bout?!" yelled Jayne. "He can fly a ship but he can't drive a ground vehicle?"

"Yes, that's exactly it, Jayne! I failed my driver's ed test in high school!" screeched Wash.

"Sir, he's blind." The guard took a swipe and Zoe countered with a kick to the ribs. "Just verbally guide him down to you." She almost sounded as if she was tired of dealing with little boys and their problems.

"What a wonderful piece of go se this is," mumbled Mal.

"Yes, I'm feeling pretty good about it myself," quipped Wash. "I'm not driving the getaway van blind!"

"Ain't much of a getaway if'n he can't e'en get here first," grumbled Jayne.

"Bi zui! Wash, straighten the wheel best ya can and hit the gas. We'll guide you down, now come on!"

Wash wasn't sure if the wheel was straight or not but figured he'd find out pretty quick once he got going downhill. He hit the gas and two seconds later felt as if his seat had dropped out from under him.

"Ahhhhh! I'm gonna die!"

"Wash! You're not straight! Turn the wheel left! No! My left!"

"Yer not very good at this are you?"

"No, Jayne, I don't have a lot of practice guiding blind drivers!"

"Some help here!"

"Turn a little right! No, a little!" Wash hit a small hillock and managed to land straight after catching a little air. He was halfway down.

"Good, you're doing great, Wash! Now a little to the left…oooh…" Wash had hit a bump and spent the next couple of seconds on two wheels.

"Well this doesn't feel right…ow!" The van clomped back down onto all fours.

"Okay, great! You're almost near the bottom, why don't you ease down a mite on the brakes…" Bamm! The van bounced over a small speed barrier, bouncing Wash's forehead off the windshield.

"Argh! Nice driving, Captain!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't see that from here. Alright, turn a little left, a little more…"

Mal currently had Wash lined up to cut through the center of a line of short parking barriers. He was doing well- until he hit the pothole that Mal had been unable to see from a distance. He proceeded to bounce off the next nearest barrier, and overcompensating the wheel right, bounced off the other side.

Bam! "Ahhh!" "Left, Wash, left!" Bam! "Ahhh!" "Right, Wash, right!" Bam! "Ahhh!" "Left, Wash…" "Ah, shut up!" "Will ya stop overdriving it!" "Yes, 'cause I can _see_ where I'm going!" "Go right, just a little!" Bam! "Ahhh!"

The van proceeded to weave its way down the line of barriers toward the building. By this point there wasn't anyone in the complex that hadn't been alerted to their presence. Patrols were converging on three sides, two that Jayne could see, and one from inside the building. As Wash approached, Mal and Jayne, with a knowing look at each other, started to move off the van's trajectory. Wash was closing in.

"Alright there, a little more, then you can start hitting the brakes."

"I'm almost there?"

"Yup, jes a l'il more, keep goin' like ya are," encouraged Jayne.

"Almost there, Wash," the Captain said. "Alright, get ready to hit the brake…"

BAMM! The front of the van smacked into the building and bounced back. Wash lurched forward to get a belly full of steering wheel. Mal looked guiltily at Jayne.

"Guess I misjudged the distance."

"Guess so."

They took off running toward the van as the closest patrol rounded the corner of the building. Amidst flying bullets Mal leaped for the passenger side while Jayne launched himself into the back.

"Alright, we're on! Wash, great job, but I think it's time for me to drive." Mal started to climb over the clutch as Jayne gently laid a hand on Wash's arm.

"Come on in the back, buddy, I got ya."

Wash was startled at Jayne's tone but complied immediately; he didn't need eyes to hear the gunfire. He slipped into the back of the van with Jayne's help and was seated right behind Mal when the whine of a bullet followed by cursing let them know Mal was hit.

"Jayne!!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'." Jayne grabbed one of the rifles Zoe had left covered in the back and crawled into the passenger seat to begin firing away at their pursuers. Mal threw the van into reverse, slammed it backwards a few yards, then hit the brakes to swing it around. Wash grabbed frantically at the back of Mal's seat to stop himself from sliding right out the back door. Jayne fired consistently and productively, wounding or dropping everyone he aimed at. Mal glanced over in open admiration as he floored the gas pedal.

"I know you're good, but how're you doing that while getting whipped around?"

Jayne shrugged and smiled. "Been practicin' wit ma girl."

&&&&&&&

Inara had managed to make even Kaylee squeal as she jammed the clutch into fifth and leaped through the compound entrance at well over a hundred ninety kph (120 mph). They heard Zoe's heavy breathing through the comm as she took on the guard and yelled for Wash to go, and Inara immediately downshifted and spun left.

"Let's see if this thing minds a little four-wheeling, okay mei-mei?"

Kaylee nodded eagerly. "Oh, yes, that would be fun. And we can pick up Zoe on the way!"

Inara grinned, downshifted again, and began winding her way up the backside of the hill, avoiding the rocks and holes as best she could. Both the women winced as they felt a rock scrape the undercarriage; this was not a vehicle built for off-road. They crested the hill just in time to see Zoe land a roundhouse kick to the guard's head.

"Go Zoe!" Kaylee cheered.

"Shh," Inara hushed her as they continued their approach. "We need to play this one." Kaylee reached for some lipstick in her pocket and applied liberally.

The guard shook his head and started to attack again, but took a step back and shifted his attention as a small black sports car pulled up across from Zoe. Inara and Kaylee stepped out.

"Hey there, big guy," Kaylee beamed. Inara just smiled and fluttered her eyelashes. The man suddenly looked unsure of himself.

"Ah, ah, ladies, you shouldn't be here, this is a crime scene…"

"Oh, we know," said Inara smoothly. "We're here to add to it."

Zoe had taken the opportunity of the guard's distraction to edge closer. Before he could even finish making a 'what are you talking about' face, she jumped up close and chopped his neck. He crumpled straight down.

&&&&&&&

River had been listening from the bridge with David still perched behind her. She was frustrated that she couldn't help, but it seemed that Wash had made it down the hill with only minor injuries, and now the guys were safely aboard and making their way, albeit with haste, back to Serenity. With the women on their way as well, she relaxed.

Unfortunately, she had been concentrating so hard on what was going on at a distance from the ship that she had failed to notice the approach of a small group of heavily armed Alliance forces. She hit the comm.

"Simon, all teams are on their way back. Mal's been hit in the leg, but I think it's just a flesh wound, the femoral artery is fine."

Simon appeared in the doorway. "I'm sorry, mei-mei." He looked completely mortified.

Both River and David turned to him, puzzled. Curiosity gave way to frustration and anger however, as Simon suddenly lurched onto the bridge, the hand that pushed him followed by the form of none other than Lieutenant Trace.


	31. Loose Ends

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 31- Loose Ends

With a gun to Simon's head, the Alliance soldiers had no trouble herding him, David, and River down to the cargo bay. River kept alert for any openings, but when Trace saw her checking his soldiers one by one, he ordered a second guard to place his gun on the other side of Simon's temple. David was behind Simon going downstairs, and Trace pushed River along himself, her hands chafing from the plastic ties.

They were lined up along the backside of the cargo hold, near Jayne's weight bench. River kept glancing around for something, anything that could slice through her bindings. Trace walked up to her and harshly smacked her across the face.

"That was partly for your little stunt involving my head the other day. Don't worry, I don't plan on damaging you much, you're too valuable to me," he snarled.

"Apparently someone hasn't read their morning cortex lately, there is no reward anymore," snipped Simon, trying to appear brave in front of his sister. He knew though that she could feel his fear. He had to figure out how to get them out of this.

River eyeballed Trace. "Not for the reward, Simon. He's going to sell me to the highest black market bidder," she stated evenly.

Trace smiled. "Ah, yes, think of the credits a psychic weapon sex slave will bring on the open market." Simon lunged angrily without thinking and got a gun butt in the shoulder for his trouble.

David was mortified at Trace's words, but wasn't letting that interrupt his assessment of their current circumstance and how he could get them out of it. He decided to feel out the situation a little more.

"Ah, excuse me, Sir, what are you planning on doing with me?"

Simon scowled at David, angry that anyone could be so self-centered when his sister was at stake. River, however, nodded encouragingly at David. She had noticed a particularly jagged edge along the back part of the weight bar holder and was sliding surreptitiously over to start working on her binding. David stumbled through his words, but continued.

"I mean, well, are you going to sell me too? I'm okay at writing code, but I don't know about the sex slave thing."

Simon looked at David, aghast. What the hell was the little puke thinking? Stupid, selfish, little geeky idiot…

"You stupid jerk!" Simon was peeved. He took a step closer to David and kicked him in the shin as his bound hands prevented him from strangling the weasel. David yelped and began hopping up and down on one foot, giving Simon an incredulous glare. The doctor couldn't be that slow, could he?

David quickly glanced at River out of the corner of his eye; from the front, one would have thought she was merely standing off to the side, but from his side view he could see her rubbing the edge of her binding against something, looked like the weight bench bar. Hmm, she must have found an edge. He decided to keep the attention on himself to give her time to…time to do what? Get her hands free and bolt? He had a feeling it was unlikely she would leave her brother behind. Whatever she was planning, it was sure to be interesting.

So he figured the least he could do was keep the distraction going. In his past heists he had always had his partner be the distracter while he hacked his way into whatever they were into- it would be interesting to see if he could play the other part.

Lt. Trace never answered his question, just shook his head disgustedly and walked away to speak to one of his soldiers. And when Simon had kicked David, Trace's only response was a glance. Until Simon kicked his other shin.

"Ow! Cut it out! I thought you were supposed to be a doctor! You remember, fix people, not hurt them!"

Simon knew he wasn't thinking straight, but when Trace had mentioned the word 'slave', he thought he was going to lose his mind. Not his sister, not his precious mei-mei.

River wished she could catch her brother's face to let him know David was acting, but his back was to her as he faced David. So she kept sawing at her bindings as the two continued to bicker.

"Enough!" bellowed Trace. "Shut up, or so help me, I'll shut you up permanently!" He turned away to speak to his guards. "Do not take your eyes off of them." He stomped out of the bay into the light of the rising moon.

River's hands were free by this time- and her mouth already was. Donning her previous 'Companion' persona, she purred at the nearest guard and took two steps forward. She held her hands behind her as if they were still bound.

"Well, if I'm to be proficient at my future profession, don't you think I should get a little practice in first?"

Simon whipped around, slack-jawed. "Mei-mei?" he squeaked.

David cringed. While her acting this time was definitely more exaggerated than when she had played him, it still brought back painful memories. Still, he understood she was working to save them all this time.

The soldier River had addressed was young: young and foolish. He too quickly dropped his guard, let his rifle fall slack to the side, and took a couple steps closer to her. A second soldier, only a few feet away, immediately attempted to reprimand his associate.

"Soldier! What do think you're doing! Step away from the prisoners!"

But it was too late. Like bees to honey, or, more appropriately, like bees to the person threatening to knock out their hive, the scene played out in front of a shell-shocked David in slow motion. With a simple roundhouse, River took out the first soldier before the second had even gotten to the word 'prisoners'; as he rushed forward she took one step to meet him and kicked straight up with her other leg into the underside of his chin, slamming his head backwards to crack off his upper back.

A third flew in from the right. River chopped his rifle away before he could finish lifting it, then swung the same arm right in an opposing chop to the side of his neck. As he dropped, another soldier managed to get in a kidney punch to her left side: it was the only hit he got as River swung around and slammed her foot into his gut. As he flew backwards and hit the wall, the few remaining soldiers in the cargo bay rushed River at once.

What followed was a blur to David and Simon. Swinging kicks, chops, punches, elbow slams- River became a whirling dervish in front of their eyes. What perhaps made the biggest impression on David was that she never became excited. Every swing, turn, step, seemed calm, pre-determined, ordinary even. In only a few seconds she was surrounded by downed men, professional soldiers who were no match for a young girl tampered with, and trained by, their own government.

River glanced back at Simon and nodded; he solemnly nodded back. He started toward the infirmary to grab something he and David could use to cut their hands free while River moved off to the side so she could continue toward the door without being readily seen. As she neared the edge of the doorway, she could hear Lt. Trace's voice. She took a quick peek around the corner. He was on his comm link.

"Yes, that's right; I have both the Tam girl and the cryptographer. I think I'll have them sedated for the trip. I'm not putting up with any trouble from her. Yes, we'll be there by tomorrow night." He clicked off and turned to re-enter the hold.

River waited along the wall until he was a full three steps inside the hold. In the half second it took for his eyes to adjust and see his soldiers heaped on the floor, River had stepped up behind him and taken a swing at his head with her right foot. But this time he was ready.

He ducked quickly under the swish of her foot and spun around, hooking his hand behind her left knee and yanking her off her feet. She was surprised, but her behind only hit the ground for a second as she bounced back upright and feinted a right hook. He fell for it, ducking left, right into her rising left knee. Jawbone and kneecap connecting, Trace grunted as his head flung back.

River took the opportunity of his unbalance to follow up with a series of gut and kidney punches. He shook those off, however, and stepped forward and smacked her across the face, open-handed. She stopped, momentarily taken off guard by the low level of the counter attack.

Trace smiled. "Listen, little girl, I really don't want to hurt you. I would like to deliver you as unbruised as possible." As he talked he slowly slid his hand down his side toward his holster. As if River wouldn't notice the movement. She waited until his fingertips just grazed the butt of the gun before returning the smile.

"I don't think so," she said simply.

David and Simon had just exited the infirmary and paused at the standoff in front of them. When River smiled, Simon knew what was coming. David, however, froze in surprise at the malice she managed to input into a normally jovial expression.

In slow motion, everyone saw Lt. Trace draw his pistol. Simon, despite the fact that he was well aware that he was too far away to do anything, took an involuntary step forward as if to help. Trace, backed by an unchallenged quick draw reputation amongst his peers, grinned his confidence. River, fully able now to turn on and off her combat instincts, turned them on. As Trace's arm swung up, so did hers; she swatted him away effortlessly, continuing her spin into something resembling a ballerina roundhouse. Everyone heard the clear snap as her foot connected to Trace's neck. His look of surprise had barely begun to register as his body dropped to the floor.

"River!" "Mei-mei!" Jayne came running up the ramp as Simon broke into a run across the cargo bay. No one in the cargo bay had heard the van screech up; no one could blame them for being distracted. Jayne grabbed River around the waist and pulled her close as Simon reached her and skidded to a stop. He didn't necessarily see himself in a group hug with Jayne, however, Jayne looked up to acknowledge him and waved him closer.

As Simon stepped forward, Jayne released River, who protested at being let go, only to be swept into Simon's arms. Both men's eyes met; a silent pact to mutually take care of the woman in Simon's arms being sealed.

Mal and Wash came up the ramp supporting each other; Mal was guiding directionally as Wash held the Captain up. Inara pulled up, wheels sliding to a stop in the dirt. She, Kaylee, and Zoe piled out, Zoe running up the ramp toward Wash. He turned and looked straight at her, opening his arms. She hugged him tightly.

"You can see," she whispered.

"Not completely, things are still a little fuzzy, but getting clearer every minute."

"Wash, what happened?" A concerned Simon let go of his sister and moved toward the pilot.

"He got sprayed by some deterrent the Alliance soldiers were carrying," explained Zoe. "I think it's only temporary, but could you check him out, Doc?"

"Absolutely," Simon grasped Wash's elbow and went to guide him in toward the infirmary. He paused and handed Wash's elbow off to Zoe. "I'll meet you both in there." He turned around to greet Kaylee who was just coming up the ramp. He grabbed her and held her close, and keeping one arm around her they continued on up the ramp.

"You're safe, bao bei."

"Yeah, we're fine. Inara is a great driver! River's okay? What happened?" She stopped, surprised to see the pile of bodies in the cargo hold.

"Well, we had a little excitement here of our own."

Kaylee gasped when she saw the body of Lt. Trace. She ran to River.

"You okay?" She hugged her tightly. River pulled back and nodded.

"Hey! What about me! A l'il Captain-y help here!" Mal whined. Jayne smiled at River and went to help the Captain to the infirmary.


	32. In the Key of Love

_All disclaimers apply_

Ch. 32- In the Key of Love

A short time later there was no sign that there had been a struggle in the cargo hold. Jayne and Zoe had dragged the bodies into some nearby scrub. Simon had patched up Mal; fortunately it was a shallow flesh wound, and Inara helped bolster the Captain by fussing an appropriate amount. The doctor had determined that Wash would be fine. The pilot's sight was almost fully restored by this time, and Simon had reassured the Captain that Wash would probably be fine by takeoff time. Jayne's bite wounds in his calf from the metallic cats had rewarded him with a tetanus booster. He and Mal were currently competing in a male whine-a-thon as to whose treatment was more painful. The remaining crew were hanging about, waiting for Lt. Shaw to show up for the handoff.

River was standing near the doorway; she was trying to stay as far away from David as she could. The waves of fright and revulsion coming off of him were much higher than the previous time he saw her fight. She was gripping the doorframe trying not to cry. She started mumbling to herself as she was finding it hard to block him out.

"River?" Kaylee saw her tension and went over to her. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

River glanced quickly back at David, then away, out the door again. "Nothing, just a long day."

Jayne noticed her reaction to Kaylee's question. He strode over to her, took her by the arms, and gently turned her to face him.

"Princess, what is it? And don't lie to me." He looked into her eyes, knowing she wouldn't look him in the eye and lie.

She couldn't help it; her eyes traveled from Jayne's to David's. Jayne knew without looking away from her where she was looking.

"What did that l'il puke do now?" he growled.

All other conversation stopped. All eyes turned to River and Jayne, standing in the cargo hold doorway, his big hands gripping her arms while she looked pleadingly up at him.

"I can't help it," she whispered, tears leaking now down the side of her face. "It's what they made me…"

Jayne dropped her arms and whirled around. "She prolly just saved your life and all you can do is make her cry?! You ungrateful l'il…" he started to stomp over to him.

Simon stepped up between Jayne and David just as Jayne neared him. "Wait a minute here, what's going on?"

Jayne snarled. "Outta my way, Doc."

Simon balked. "You're at least twice his size. Don't you think the rest of us should know why you're about to beat on the passenger we swore to protect?"

"Yes, please, let's all hear it." Lt. Shaw stepped into the bay. "Permission to board, Captain?"

"Yeah, and yeah, Jayne, I think I'd like to hear why you're trying to beat on this kid, on my boat, too," Mal added.

"Fine!" Jayne whirled around, glaring at Shaw and Mal before turning back to Simon. "This 'ere kid has had his l'il pi gu saved twice by yer sister, yet he doesn't thank her, 'stead he thinks she's a crazy freak!" Simon looked startled. "Yeah, that's right, he's standin' there right now, thinkin' loud so's she can't block it, that she's a killer, a maniac, an animal, and that he should be scared 'a her and stay away from her. That bein' friends wit' her ain't safe. That what he thinks, Simon, that your darlin' baby mei-mei ain't_ normal_."

Jayne had lowered his voice as he finished his statement, using the one word that Simon himself had historically used when his life was first turned upside-down. He looked toward River, shocked, seeing her tears and hurt face. Not answering Jayne, he spun around toward David, fist raised.

Years from that moment, Jayne would still have a special place in his heart for the story of the Doc's right hook. David's head snapped back as his feet left the floor and he flew the four feet behind him to smack into the wall. As he slid down, hands on his head, moaning, Simon stalked over to him.

David looked up in abject fear at the doctor towering over him. Simon growled, another feat Jayne would, to the doctor's horror, take great glee in regaling in the future.

"My sister is not normal. Or ordinary. She's special. Too special for anyone who doesn't appreciate her." He turned to Jayne.

"River once told me that you understood her. Listened to her. Helped her. Accepted her exactly as she is. That you were the key to her happiness." He turned back to David.

"That is worth far more than some _smart_ guy." He stomped off to the infirmary, presumably to get some ice for his quickly swelling knuckles. Kaylee ran off after him.

Lt. Shaw cleared his throat. "Well, Captain, now that that cute little bit of drama is over, maybe we can talk shop?"

Mal, grinning ear to ear over his doctor's backbone, gestured to Jayne. "Got the goods, Rabbit-man? Or would you prefer 'Snake-bait'?"

Jayne grimaced. "Will ya'll _please_ stop calling me animal names?" He handed the cryptography key to the Captain, who gestured for Shaw to walk with him outside.

When they reached the end of the ramp, Mal looked forlornly at the small black box and sighed. "This here 'key to ev'rything' has caused a peck 'a trouble for me and my crew," he stated looking Lt. Shaw straight in the eye. "I hope you're planning on using this thing wisely." He placed the box in the lieutenant's outstretched palm.

"There's still a lot of planning that needs to be done. This can help speed up that timeline, help get access to information that otherwise would have taken years and possibly lives. Your assistance in this operation has been immeasurable, Captain Reynolds. I have to ask: have you given any thought to staying on here?"

Mal shook his head ruefully. "Not right now, Shaw, but I appreciate the invite. I'll keep it in mind, but right now I got some family to take care of." He shook the lieutenant's hand and started to turn away. He paused and turned back. "Don't worry, I'll make sure your code expert makes it off my ship intact. Well, still functioning, that is." And with a smile and a jaunty wave, Mal left the Independent leader behind, his mind now wandering to thoughts of what they could make for dinner; he was starved, he'd had a long day after all.

&&&&&&&

Back inside Serenity's hold, Inara was dabbing the blood off the corner of David's mouth and helping him to his feet. She was mad at him as well for making River cry; but she also understood that seeing her in action the first couple of times had been hair-raising for them as well. She mainly just wanted to get David departed from the ship before anyone else decided to take a pot shot at him. He was a little electronics geek after all, not a trained fighter. Or a trained mercenary. Or, apparently, a trained doctor fighter.

She placed an arm around his shoulders and was hustling him toward the door when Mal came back inside.

"Oh, good, Inara, we need to get him outside before someone else decides to…"

"Yes, Mal, I think I have the idea."

"Okay, good. David, interesting to have you aboard. Take care." Mal shook his hand and walked off in the direction of the mess. David shook his head and let Inara continue to lead him to the door. A few feet away they were interrupted again. By Jayne.

"Now, Jayne," Inara started to protest.

"It's alright, 'Nara. Not gonna hit 'im. Too easy, anyway, the Doc did a bang-up job of it anyhow." He turned to David. "But I do think ya should 'pologize to River 'fore ya leave. Personally, I got no use fer ya, but she thought ya two were friends. I know the Cap's l'il job got ya peeved 'n all, but that ya can hash out wit' him if ya got a mind to."

David looked to River standing off to the side, sighed, and walked over. Her eyes were red and she looked unhappy.

"I'm sorry Simon hit you," she said.

David was startled; he hadn't expected an apology from her. "I'm sorry I made you feel bad, I didn't mean to."

She smiled suddenly, and David realized that he would remember that more than anything else about her. Her smile grew as the thought passed through his head, and he knew they were parting on okay terms.

"I know I surprised you," she replied, "and your reaction was not unprecedented. If you or Lt. Shaw require assistance in the future, you may wave me." She leaned forward, placed her hands on his forearms, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"I have to go now, the Captain is in the kitchen and I believe he will be burning something soon if I am not there to save the day." She grinned and skipped off.

David stared after her, surprised at her easy forgiveness. Jayne growled lowly.

"While I think her offer was sincere, there'll be no need to be callin' in the near future," he murmured dangerously. David swallowed and nodded mutely.

"Yes, sir." He turned to Inara. "Thank you ma'am, I'll be going now." And with that final farewell, David 'Cosmo' Janek left Serenity.

&&&&&&&

Dinner was lively, and, well, a little bit of a mishmash of incongruous elements. Since they had all been involved in the job there had been a bit of chore sliding, but with the comfort of the black surrounding them once again, no one minded eating off paper plates and following bitefuls of rice and potstickers with chipped soy beef and slices of eggplant.

For the most part they chatted about things that involved settling back into their routines. Inara teased Mal about wanting to redecorate his bunk. Kaylee rattled off her dream list of replacement parts while Simon listened intently, not understanding. Wash and Zoe had retired early, Wash mumbling something about needing 'special' doctoring.

Jayne and River, surprisingly, were eating quietly, with opposite hands as she was leaning against him and he had his arm wrapped around her. They finished and River fake-cleared her throat noisily.

"Simon?"

"Yes, mei-mei?"

"I'm moving into Jayne's bunk."

"Okay. Let me know if you need any help moving your things."

River smiled brilliantly up at Jayne, who was looking pole-axed. "Um, Doc, ya don't have no objections?"

Simon looked up at him and smiled. "Uh, okay. You even think about hurting her, and remember that I have sharp scalpels and many drugs, and I know how to use them?"

It was Jayne's turn to smile brilliantly down at River. "That sounds good, Doc."

THE END

_& & & & & & & _

_Epilogue_

More than a decade after a young River Tam reset her parent's house controls during a dinner party, she sat alone at Serenity's mess table, perched once again over a small board with numerous configurations of metal attached to it. She was twisting a wire into place when a groggy Jayne came stumbling through the doorway.

"Babe, what're ya doin' up at this hour?"

"Just working on a little project, my Jayne."

"Almost done? I can't sleep wi'out ya," he whined.

She finished sticking the wire into its place on the board and stood. "Okay, back to bed," she said. She wound her arms around him and tilted her head up. He gently, sleepily, touched his lips to hers, and quickly woke up as she pressed harder.

His eyes opened wider and he slung an arm under her knees and scooped her up. "Okay, yer done doin' whatever it is yer doin', cause now we need to be doin' a whole lotta somethin' else." She giggled as he hurried them back to their bunk.

&&&&&&&

Some time later, somewhere near the corner of 'no' and 'where' in the black, a channel-flipper stopped clicking long enough to listen to a news update on the Cortex.

"And in other financial news, it seems the top two Alliance political parties are having some accounting problems. Both the United Allied Party of the Privileged, UAPoP, and the United Allied Party of Entitled Entities, UAPEE, appear to be broke, while the New Greenpeace and the Mentally Assailed charities appear to be posting record earnings, mostly from anonymous contributors."

_&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&_

_A heartfelt thank you to everyone who read, especially everyone who read and reviewed my little story. This was fun- turned into a blast by you, Reader._ :))


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